In a recent fundraising e-mail, Dr. Ben Carson attempts to turn his lack of experience into an advantage:

The media and the political class don’t know what to do with us quite yet. They discount me by saying things like “Ben Carson has no political experience.”
For once the ruling political class is right. I have never voted for a budget we could not afford. I have never voted to raise the debt limit. I have never voted to raise taxes. And I have never promised a lobbyist anything for a donation. It defies logic that the political class thinks this is what America needs more of.

It’s an old strategy — “hang a lantern on your problem.”

Of course, the GOP 2016 field will include some candidates who have (variously) voted to reduce spending, who have balanced budgets in their own states, who have voted to reduce taxes, who have signed tax cuts into law, and who have enacted their own ethics reforms to reduce corruption. In other words, not voting the wrong way isn’t as good as it gets! Some of these guys actually voted the right way!