Want to understand Hillary Clinton? Read Saul Alinsky

When Ben Carson, in his speech at the Republican National Convention, drew attention to Hillary Clinton's tribute to the radical community organizer Saul Alinsky (1909-72), no eyebrows ascended. But when Carson went on to invoke Alinsky's admiration of Lucifer, and tie Clinton to that community organizer, the guffaws began in earnest.

"So are we willing," Carson asked, "to elect someone as president who has as their role model somebody who acknowledges Lucifer?"

Anyone who has actually read Alinsky, I believe, would have to take the question seriously. Alinsky's most famous book, the 1971 Rules for Radicals: A Pragmatic Primer for Realistic Radicals, includes a dedication to "the first radical known to man who rebelled against the establishment and did it so effectively that he at least won his own kingdom — Lucifer."

As for Clinton, there is no doubt that she was deeply impressed by Alinsky's work. In 1969, she wrote "'There Is Only the Fight ...': An Analysis of the Alinsky Model," a 92-page senior thesis at Wellesley College on the elder radical's tactics. At the Clintons' request, the thesis was embargoed until after they left the White House.

Readers hoping for evidence of wild-eyed revolutionary sentiment will be disappointed. It is plodding student work, admiring of Alinsky's goals while quietly taking exception to some his more extreme tactics.