Radio host Glenn Beck says he worries that presidential contender Ben Carson could end up being the Jimmy Carter of the Republican Party.
“Is it possible we are making the same mistake the Democrats made with Jimmy Carter?” Beck asked of Carson on his daily broadcast.
{mosads}“He is a really nice guy [but] are we looking past too many things?
“I’m concerned he doesn’t have the facts down strongly enough.”
Beck argued that Carter won the White House in 1976 by offering them moral goodness without a career in establishment politics.
“He was a kind, gentle man,” Beck said of Carter. “[Carter] was a humble guy, a preacher [and] he carried his own luggage on airplanes.
“He had all of the earmarks of someone who would be a good guy [and] not screw us,” Beck added of the 39th president.
Beck said retired neurosurgeon Carson’s campaign is resonating with voters in much the same way.
“He’s not an insider [and] he’s going to be honest with us,” he said of Carson. “I see why people are so attracted to him.
“If he was rock solid, I’d love for him to be the candidate,” Beck added. “There are millions of reasons why I want him to be president of the United States. I really, really like him.”
Beck’s remarks come as Carson continues to gain on GOP front-runner Donald Trump, even surpassing him in some national polls.
An NBC News/Wall Street Journal sampling released Tuesday, for example, has Carson leading with 29 percent to Trump’s 23 percent.
Carson has won high favorability ratings from voters with his soft-spoken rhetoric and civility toward other presidential candidates.
His campaign is particularly popular with evangelicals, as Carson touts while on the campaign trail his faith as a Seven-day Adventist.