Every eager conservative activist who rides the free shuttle to the event will have to watch a video on the bus’s screens of a descendant of John Philip Sousa explaining why Carson is the “the only candidate who can beat Hillary Clinton” in 2016. And the first 2,000 people who check into their hotel rooms here will find Carson on their room keys. He’s on the CPAC straw poll, and his fans downstairs at the exhibition hall will tell you why he’s a mathematical shoo-in for the presidency…

It’s all the work of the National Draft Ben Carson for President Committee, which is trying to get the conservative neurosurgeon to run for president. It’s part fan club, part savvy campaign.

The case for Carson is all about math and race. Carson is African-American and his supporters think that will be his path to victory. He’s “a respected figure among black Americans,” the video explains, and if he can win just 17 percent of the black vote, it is “mathematically impossible” for a Democrat to win the White House…

“Carsonologists,” as Robinson calls the devoted fans who parse every word from Carson’s mouth like it was coming out of the Politburo, have noticed a subtle but potentially meaningful shift in his tense choice lately. Carson has gone from saying he “hopes” the right candidate will emerge to saying he “hoped” one would, perhaps indicating that he’s moving toward a run. Robinson is trying to push Carson there by sending him 4,000 petitions a week urging him to get in the race.

Carson did say, however, “I’ve heard from some very big donors” encouraging him to run, though he wouldn’t offer any names. He readily acknowledges that he’s not steeped in politics and would need a team with that experience to mount a strong challenge…

“I really am waiting more to see what the field looks like. If there’s somebody out there who is truly exciting people, there wouldn’t be any need for me to run,” he said.

But that hasn’t happened yet: “I think there are a lot of potential people. No one has really grabbed the imagination of the American people.”

Indeed, if the need is there, he just might do it. Begrudgingly.

“I don’t particularly want to do it,” he told The Hill, “but I would never turn my back on my fellow Americans.”

Carson hasn’t said anything to indicate he’s planning a run, but his supporters are optimistic. When the group first filed, Greta Van Susteren asked him if he had White House ambitions. Carson responded by describing a presidential bid as “not something I particularly want to do.” But he also said he wouldn’t interfere with efforts to draft him. For the Draft Ben Carson committee, that was enough.

“We decided that was a wink, and a pretty political wink,” Robinson says.

Left-wing racists are attacking Johns Hopkins University physician Ben Carson, who delivered a crowd-pleasing speech Saturday at the Conservative Political Action Conference.

The indispensable Twitchy Team collects many jaw-dropping assaults on Carson as a thinker, a professional, a leader, an American, and a human being.

Carson is an “Uncle Tom,” tweets self-described comedian Laura Levites…

Other epithets hurled by progressive bigots: “lunatic,” “clown,” “house negro” and beneficiary of the “soft bigotry of low expectations” — this last a sophistical phrase baritone Michael Ditto expropriates from former president George W. Bush.

In his short career as a conservative icon, Dr. Ben Carson has traveled the traditional stations of the cross. The media, surprised by his first political speech at the 2013 National Prayer Breakfast, has covered his view of gay marriage (unnatural, just as bestiality is unnatural), of Obamacare (“the worst thing to happen since slavery”), of Nazi Germany (parallels to today). This has bound the movement ever closer to Carson…

“One of the principles of Saul Alinsky is that you make the majority think their ideology is outdated, and nobody thinks that way,” Carson told the audience. The media had done all that, and lied about him, like when it claimed he had compared Obamacare to slavery.

“Of course they’re not the same thing,” said Carson. “Slavery is much worse. But keep in mind what happens with Obamacare,” a massive transfer of power from the people to the state.

A lot of ppl like Ben Carson. I've spoken with him before. His belief in restriction of gun rights is a deal killer for me, tho. #CPAC2014

— Dana Loesch (@DLoesch) March 8, 2014

Carson's past remarks on how gun rights should be determined by geographical location was unacceptable. http://t.co/7AS1ANsWx5 #CPAC2014

— Dana Loesch (@DLoesch) March 8, 2014

Gun rights isn't an "issue." It's a freaking civil right.

— Dana Loesch (@DLoesch) March 8, 2014

Always dislike when these politicos are lionized before wider audience learns ALL of their positions.

— Dana Loesch (@DLoesch) March 8, 2014

These are things about which we should be fierce.

— Dana Loesch (@DLoesch) March 8, 2014

“One of the things that is so important for conservatives — the ship is about to sail off of Niagara Falls and we’re all going to be killed. And we got a bunch of people looking over the side of the ship and they’re saying, ‘But there’s barnacles on the side; we’ve got to get the barnacles off’. Forget about the barnacles. We got to get the ship turned around first. And you know when we get through with the primary season, and your person hasn’t won — you can call them whatever you want to call them, you can call them a RINO, you can call them a teabagger — you can call them whatever you want. Vote for ‘em, OK. We need those people, OK. We need them.”

When asked whether he’s thinking of running for president, as many CPAC attendees have encouraged him to do, he said he doesn’t “have a desire to” do it, but does want to help save his country, which might mean an electoral run.