Ben Carson: I'd give Kanye West a chance as president

Yes, some clichés are true: Politics does make strange bedfellows.

Ben Carson and Kanye West, for example.

Carson, the retired neurosurgeon who is polling well in the Republican presidential race, is praising the White House prospects of the rapper West, who said during the MTV Video Music Awards last month that he plans to run for president in 2020.

“Well, I am certainly willing to give him a chance,” Carson said Sunday on ABC's This Week. “He’ll be able to explain things and see if he resonates with the people.”

Carson said he has spoken with West, and "I was extremely impressed with his business acumen. He knows a lot about business."

He added: "I talked to him about the possibility of maybe himself and some of the other people in pop culture doing some music that might be uplifting that might give young women a sense of their value and young men a sense of responsibility. I think it could be a tremendous thing in our society."

In some ways, Carson is returning a compliment: West praised the doctor in a Vanity Fair interview published this week.

“When I run for president, I’d prefer not to run against someone. I would be like ‘I want to work with you,” West said. “As soon as I heard [Ben] Carson speak, I tried for three weeks to get on the phone with him. I was like this is the most brilliant guy.”