Calm Manner Has Ben Carson Rising in Polls
Jason Walke, a trial lawyer in Des Moines, said neither Mr. Trump nor another fiery outsider, Senator Ted Cruz of Texas, “has a snowball’s chance of changing things in Washington the way Ben Carson does.”
“I believe someone as mild-mannered and gentlemanly as Ben Carson is just about the only kind of person that could,” said Mr. Walke, who heard Mr. Carson speak to a modest crowd on the lawn of a fraternity house at Iowa State University on Saturday.
Similar views surfaced in a focus group of Republicans last week in Indiana: Many criticized Mr. Trump as divisive while praising Mr. Carson as “wise” and a “gentleman.”
.. Mr. Carson’s events have a distinct feel. Voters approach him with something close to reverence, and he appears gracious and unhurried when interacting with them one on one. On Saturday, his wife, Candy, a Yale-trained classical violinist, sang an a cappella version of the national anthem on the lawn of the fraternity house, pausing midmeasure to tell the crowd, “Hands over hearts, please.”
.. “People are very attracted to Ben Carson’s bedside demeanor,” said Bob Vander Plaats, a leader of the Christian right in Iowa.
.. Mr. Trump appeals to a somewhat different demographic from Mr. Carson’s: working-class voters with high school educations, for whom social issues and religious beliefs are less important.