In a roundabout way, silent citizen-statesman Ben Carson dropped out of the Republican primary Wednesday when he said he would not attend the debate held in Detroit. Carson said in a statement on his website, “I do not see a political path forward in light of last evening’s Super Tuesday primary results. … Along with millions of patriots who have supported my campaign for President, I remain committed to Saving America for Future Generations.” It wasn’t money that doomed the neurosurgeon, but it was the realization that he couldn’t win.

In an interview with the Associated Press, Carson’s friend Armstrong Williams called on Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz to drop from the race, for resistance is futile against the rise of Trump. Carson was a political outsider, trying to win as a good man who rose the occasion to lead the country. But his brand of political outsider was overshadowed by a man who knew how to manipulate the masses through years in reality television.

“Ben Carson didn’t enter this race a policy expert, but his heart always seemed to be in the right place,” National Review’s Jim Geraghty eulogized. “He wasn’t up to speed on the details, but he almost always seemed to see the big picture right — and perhaps more importantly, he could say he had lived by the right values.” Carson wasn’t prepared to fill the nation’s highest office (he lacked the presence to take on the bullies of the world, like Vladimir Putin) but hopefully a Republican administration sees the wisdom in asking him to become surgeon general.