Hillary seems destined to be the Democrat nominee, and it looks increasingly likely that Carson may be the Republican nominee.  Carson has opened up statistically significant leads over Trump in Iowa, and if Carson wins in Iowa, those Republicans who find Trump unpalatable will coalesce around Carson.  That ought to comfort conservatives and chill the hearts of leftists.  Ben Carson would beat Hillary Clinton, and for several different reasons.

Clinton is the ultimate insider, the very sort of creature seen by most Americans as the problem, and they are sick to death of all Washington politicians.  Hillary simply cannot rewrite herself as a breath of fresh air or as someone who has not been part of the rotted national political structure. 

Carson, by contrast, has had less experience as a politician than any Republican running for the nomination (Fiorina and Trump have both run in campaigns before, Fiorina for the Senate and Trump for the Reform Party nomination).  While politicians love to harp endlessly on about their "service" (their time sucking on the public teat), Carson has been healing sick babies.

Clinton lies all the time, and when she is not lying, she is parsing her words so carefully that it is tantamount to lying.  She is, after all, a Clinton – a pathological liar.  Everything she says is just for effect, and none of her words are meant to be taken seriously.  When even her supporters agree that Hillary does not tell the truth, that is a problem for her.

Carson, on the other hand, is disarmingly honest and genuine.  This is presumed by pundits to be his "problem," but it is instead his strength.  When Dr. Carson talks, we are drawn to listen to him with the same sort of attention the doctor gets when he calmly tells concerned parents just what surgery he is planning and why he thinks it will work.  There are no cackles, no smirks, no sniping – just honest opinion.

Hillary pretends to be very bright, but there is no evidence at all that she actually is bright.  An average student who failed the District of Columbia Bar examination, a woman dumb enough to believe that using a private server would never lead to political fallout, a politician who functions only when utterly canned or, as in the debate, when surrounded by nebbishes, there is no reason to believe Hillary is intelligent at all.

Dr. Carson, on the other hand, is brilliant.  His medical work was groundbreaking in a most difficult area of surgery that held the lives of infants in the balance.  He excelled in an area in which excellence was normal and in which results could not be faked. 

Hillary is perhaps the most profoundly unlikeable presidential candidate since Nixon – a malodorous mix of Cruella de Vil and the Wicked Witch of the West, but without the charm.  Her claim to fame is purely dynastic, and she behaves with arrogance and condescension.

In stark contrast, who does not like Ben Carson?  He is clearly a gentle man, an authentic man, and a humble man.   It is hard to see how negative attacks on Ben Carson can do anything except backfire, and no candidate since Reagan has been more immune to negative campaigning.

Hillary is utterly amoral.  Other than some rare and perfunctory nods at religion, Hillary's life seems to be as godless as that of any major party presidential candidate in our nation's history.  What this means – and Americans grasp this in their hearts – is that "right" and "wrong" have no real relevance to Hillary.

Carson, on the other hand, is as deeply grounded in sincere Christianity as any candidate in recent memory (Presidents Reagan, Carter, and George W. Bush were also serious about God.)  What that means in blunt terms is that Americans can trust Carson to do what is right, even when it costs him, while no sane person would ever trust Hillary to do what is right just because it is right.

All of these intangibles – political independence, personal honesty, genuine intelligence, gentle humility, and moral character – decisively favor Ben Carson over Hillary Clinton.  If the 2016 race boils down to Carson versus Clinton, conservatives have much to celebrate.