If you ascribe to the notion that the United States as a nation is sick, then we just may have found the doctor to make us well — or at least  one with the fortitude to tell us what we need to do to recover.

The latest darling of the conservative movement is Dr. Ben Carson, a neurosurgeon at the prestigious Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, where he is the director of pediatric neurosurgery.

Carson has had a distinguished career in the medical field, and is best remembered — at least until recently — for leading a team of surgeons which successfully separated twins joined at the head, a feat performed in 1987. Carson is also the recipient of the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation’s highest civilian award, bestowed by George W. Bush in 2008.

But it is not his medical skills for which Dr. Carson is known today. He’s now known as The Man Who Faced Down Barack Obama.

If you haven’t seen the video yet, just go to YouTube and search for his name. There you will see him delivering a speech at the White House prayer breakfast. Here’s how The Wall Street Journal sets the scene:

“Seated in view to his right are Senator Jeff Sessions [R-Ala.] and President Obama. One doesn’t look happy. You know something’s coming when Dr. Carson says, ‘It’s not my intention to offend anyone. But it’s hard not to. The PC police are out in force everywhere.’ ”

Carson then talked about two ideas that made the president squirm: a flat tax based on the Biblical principal of tithing — giving 10 percent of one’s earnings to the church — and on health care, to which he said: “Here’s my solution: When a person is born, give him a birth certificate, an electronic medical record, and a health savings account to which money can be contributed — pretax —from the time you’re born ‘til the time you die.”

In other words, the antithesis of ObamaCare.

Maybe that’s why the WSJ titled their article about his speech, “Ben Carson for President.”

Sen. Marco Rubio, you may have just found your running mate for the 2016 presidential election.