THE LONG CON GOES ON AND ON.

In this week's Voice column I predicted the Ben Carson campaign couldn't last much longer, which was a gutsy move on my part since, for one thing, Carson's super-PAC (the guys who were advertising a Draft Carson movement back at the 2014 CPAC) raised $3 million in the third quarter. But what may really screw up my calculations is that Carson's who-gives-a-shit approach to running for President goes even further than his rhetoric: He's taking two weeks off from the campaign to do a book tour.

Carson's campaign staff will not travel with him while on tour, noting that it’s better to stay off the trail for fear of being accused of using campaign assets to sell books. 

“It’s a question of co-mingling from the corporate standpoint to the Federal Election Commission standpoint so it’s just better to avoid any bad appearance,” spokesman Doug Watts told ABC News.

I like to imagine James Madison taking time off from standing for President to tour in support of a deluxe, commemorative edition of The Federalist Papers (Bound in calfskin! Comes with a free slave!) -- except everyone believed Madison would be President one day.

So, on the one hand Carson could decide, screw this, politics is tiring, I'll just quit and take that Fox News sinecure. But on the other, he could just keep dipping in and out of campaigning as income-generating opportunities demand. It'll help keep the act fresh!

Here's my favorite part of this report:

The book proceeds are personal, and are not connected to Dr. Carson’s presidential campaign, however the campaign does note they are indirectly making money off the book and views its release during a time when he is polling so high as beneficial.

You have to appreciate the nerve. Once upon a time the ancillary merchandising of Presidential campaigns was left to hucksters who cranked out buttons, bumper stickers, and Teddy Bears. I think the killer sales of Dreams for my Father during the 2008 campaign (not to mention the money-making post-resignation career of Sarah Palin) changed the game, and that the kind of shitheels who are running the Carson scam would not only consider the merchandising more important than the Public-Service bullshit, but would choose to be open about it, so no one could say they were being sneaky about making beaucoup bucks off the poor saps who think Carson's serious about the leading the nation. It's proof that what Rick Perlstein called The Long Con not only endures but evolves to keep pace with our increasingly degenerate political culture.