Ben Carson is a brilliant neurosurgeon and medical professor. He’s also becoming a rising political star. But first, doc, you need to learn how to speak with nuance and precision.

He recently spoke with conservative commentator Sean Hannity about gay marriage. Dr. Carson opposes it, he says, for Biblical reasons.

Then he began to ramble a bit about gay marriage and, while stringing together a list of collective associations, said that marriage is a “a well-established, fundamental pillar of society and no group, be they gays, be they NAMBLA, be they people who believe in bestiality — it doesn’t matter what they are, they don’t get to change the definition.”

http://thehill.com/video/in-the-news/291023-ben-carson-defends-gay-marriage-comments

Critics jumped all over the good doctor, saying he was “equating” gay individuals with those who practice bestiality. He said his comments were “taken out of context.” I don’t know about the “context” argument, Dr. Carson. Those comments seem pretty self-evident to me.

But whether they reflect the view his critics contend they do or not, Carson could have been a bit more, shall we say, discreet in his comparisons. He could have stopped at “be they gays,” and called it good.

But he didn’t. He talked a little too freely with his pal Hannity.

Carson is being talked about now as a possible Republican presidential candidate in 2016. He has said he will consider it in due course, once he quits his medical practice, which he’s already said he’ll do.

A word of caution, doctor: This political world into which you may enter is full of traps, which politicians are known to spring all by themselves with their own careless utterances.