The new IBD/TIPP poll has Ben Carson in the lead — with 24% — and Trump at 17%.

How incredibly strange... and this follows on Carson's much-noticed statement that he wouldn't accept a Muslim as President. Can it be that what seemed like an unforced error actually helped his cause? Trump boosted his cause by making statements that look — to mainstream commentators — as though they outright disqualify him from being taken seriously. Perhaps it's not Trump's style and bluster that have put him in the lead, but the substance itself, the very substance that horrifies moderates. Because here's Carson, with his completely different demeanor and tone, vaulting ahead saying something that anybody serious was supposed to know you just don't say.

Carson has also been citing Hitler. Asked why the other day, he said:

"If people don't speak up for what they believe, then other people will change things without them having a voice. Hitler changed things there and nobody protested. Nobody provided any opposition to him, and that's what facilitated his rise."

The reporter who asked the question prompted Carson to say that Obama is like Hitler, but he said, "no":

"I'm saying that in a situation where people do not express themselves, bad things can happen. That's the main problem that I have with political correctness. It keeps people from expressing themselves. And it's the expression, the conversation, that leads to solutions. Keeping everybody silent, while you change the fabric of the society, is not what America was supposed to be about."