Decision ‘08

A Question For You: Whither Ann Coulter?

If anyone cares to comment, I would like to know: how seriously do you take Ann Coulter? Full disclaimer: I own or have read all of her books. I sometimes find her arguments intriguing, and I often find her wit amusing…but I must say, I tire of her apocalyptic rhetoric at times. Her latest obsession has been the idea that John Roberts is not a conservative. I’m sorry, but to me, this kind of talk sounds like the same ideological purity garbage that we get onto the Left for. Hypocrisy is not a winning strategy.

Anyway, that’s my take; what’s yours?…

24 Responses to “A Question For You: Whither Ann Coulter?”

1 Dennis Says:
July 28th, 2005 at 9:20 pm
I’ll be honest, I can’t stand her. She’s like a conservative Kos or Krugman; she offers comfort food for the cause, but not much nutrition.

That’s not to say she can’t make valid points, just like Kos and Krugman do. But she does it with such fury that I think she doesn’t do anything to persuade someone who isn’t already on her side. If voters had chosen differently last year, I’ve no doubt she’d be gettiing just as moonbatty right now as many of the lefties are, screaming “Treason!” every time President Kerry blew his nose. (Sorry if the words “President Kerry” set anyone off their feed. ;))

She’s also a publicity hound. That’s not terrible in itself - hey, ya gotta sell books - but I saw it suggested somewhere on the Net that if just about every conservative is saying how swell Roberts is, what better way to jump out of the pack than to attack him?
2 Leon H Says:
July 28th, 2005 at 9:26 pm
Ann Coulter is a humorist. At that, she is very talented. I have all her books, and there’s some good material in there. I would suggest, however, that she stay away from TV, in that she doesn’t come across too well on TV IMHO.

She should not be viewed as a spokesman for our party any more than Molly Ivins or Al Franken are for the Democrats.

Plus, unlike either Ivins or Franken, she actually is humorous.
3 Mark Coffey Says:
July 28th, 2005 at 9:36 pm
Yikes! President Kerry! Oh, man, oh, man…Leon, I disagree with you on one thing: Franken can be funny (or at least, he could be before he got so full of hate for Bush…he sure hasn’t been funny lately).

But Ivins…oh, man, do I hate that cornpone stuff…it just about makes me ill to read anything by Ivins or Hightower, it’s always such a load of faux-populist B.S….
4 AcademicElephant Says:
July 28th, 2005 at 9:38 pm
Sure, she makes some good points, but ultimately she misses the mark because her conclusions are pretty superficial. Simply hating the democrats doesn’t get us anywhere. Then there’s the “look.” I don’t object to the black leather and the platinum hair per say, but if you’re going to go that route of self-presentation, then you need to back it up with some pretty solid intellectual firepower, and I have never found much of that in her work. So close but no cigar is my assessment.
5 Dmac Says:
July 28th, 2005 at 9:58 pm
Ann, I knew Bill Buckley, I worked with Bill Buckley…and believe me, you’re no Bill Buckley!

She’s just the flip side of the Tourette’s Syndrome we see presently manifested in the we - hate - Bush 24/7 crowd.
6 Mark Coffey Says:
July 28th, 2005 at 10:06 pm
Here’s one of my pet peeves about Ann’s work; it seems to be largely based on Lexis/Nexis searches…I know, I know, glass houses, and all, with me and Google searches…but then, I’m not a best-selling author (yet!)…
7 Dmac Says:
July 28th, 2005 at 10:37 pm
Mark, all you gotta do is suit up in some tough - looking outfit like Ann does. Geez, the few times I’ve seen her on TV I kept looking for her attendant whips and chains.

Ann Coulter: real, act, or self - parody? Maybe all of the above.
8 Ryan Bonneville Says:
July 28th, 2005 at 10:39 pm
I strongly dislike what she represents, even when she’s funny or has real ideas. Because no matter how good her ideas are or how right she is, she always packages her thoughts in the “Democrats/liberals are traitors” meme. It’s not only false, it reinforces the culture of hate that has produced the Michael Moores and Ann Coulters in the first place. Not only that, but she is sort of a lunatic deep down anyway. The kind of rhetoric she was tossing around that got her fired from National Review is racist and cruel, not funny.
9 Dennis Says:
July 28th, 2005 at 10:40 pm
You won’t charge us for autographs when you make the big time, will you Mark?

I agree with you on Franken. The guy used to be liberal and funny. Now he’s just liberal and bitter. His book about his faux 2000 campaign, “Why Not Me?” is a scream, It’s written in diary form, and includes bit where he writes stuff like, “Campaign not going well. Crowd not pleased with speech. Splurged on hooker.” And then the second half of the book manages promote liberal ideals while also mocking certain liberal inanities, such as President Franken’s inaugural address, which is just a big self-loathing apology for everything America has done wrong. If only he remained that self-aware. He’d be both funny and more effective in promoting his own causes. You can’t be funny if the punch line is always, “because Republicans are evil and/or stupid.”
10 AcademicElephant Says:
July 28th, 2005 at 10:42 pm
Don’t belittle the google search–it has radically transformed academic research, and as Ward Churchill has taught us, that is the gold standard. But really, it’s not her method I object to, it’s that her conclusions are foregone and facile. She’s too easy for the left to make fun of.
11 too many steves Says:
July 28th, 2005 at 10:46 pm
You know, I like Ann Coulter’s writing for the same reason I like those old Eddie Murphy comedy records: she says things I might think but would never say, and I find that amusing.

But I would never say those things because they are, often, based on thin evidence and convenient leaps in reasoning. I do equate her with Al Franken and Molly Ivins and Michael Moore in the sense that she leaves holes in her arguments that her detractors and opponents can too easily drive through.

Then again, I do find her hot looking and her personality is attractive in a dominatrix sort of way. Oh, wait, did I actually write that down?!? Dammit!

As for Al Franken, he was at his best when he was heard saying:

“I’m good enough, I’m smart enough, and, gosh darn it, people like me.”
12 Mark Coffey Says:
July 28th, 2005 at 10:58 pm
too many steves, you know, not that I would notice or anything, but she is kind of sexy…Dennis, I actually have or have read all the Al Franken books, too - you’re right, the Why Not Me? has some screamingly funny moments…but Rush Limbaugh is a Big Fat Idiot was his high point (I must admit, the cover picture of him in the library with the pipe is something I find unfailingly funny)…
13 Blind Boy Grunt Says:
July 28th, 2005 at 11:32 pm
I agree with your comments Mark. After reading her article, here’s my two cents: To broadly equate Roberts with Warren, Blackmun, and Souter without any deeper analysis than what she offered is way too simplistic, and it seems clear to me she’s just throwing a bone to her readers to keep them thinking she’s got something interesting and insightful to say on the matter. Google up Warren and Blackmun biographies and they have nowhere near the conservative background that Roberts has. Plus, the politics and the times were different.
And to say Republicans and conservatives are blindly lapping it all up is also an exaggeration. Sure we’re cautious, but we’re also optimistic, and with good reason. Despite what some say about his short time as a judge, his “conservative” legal credentials are solid:
Clerked for Rehnquist (you think Rehnquist would hire a liberal?);
Reagan Justice Department (you think Reagan’s AG would hire a liberal?);
Reagan White House (you think Reagan himself would hire a liberal?); and
Bush I Solicitor General’s office (you think Bush’s AG would hire a liberal to represent the government in front of the Supremes?).
To put it simply: Not matter how many Hahvad degrees you have, you don’t get these plum jobs without drinking the Kool-Aid, and lots of it.
Plus, he was also nominated twice before for the court of appeals and shot down by Democrats in 1992 and 2001. You think they would do that if he was a liberal? Plus, don’t ya think, deep down, he’s looking for some payback somewhere down the road for Leahy, Kennedy, Schumer, and their ilk for not confirming him way back then? Of course, he won’t say that, but he’s gotta be thinking it.
14 AcademicElephant Says:
July 29th, 2005 at 12:47 am
FYI–http://corner.nationalreview.com/05_07_24_corner-archive.asp#071238
15 Mark Coffey Says:
July 29th, 2005 at 12:56 am
AcademicElephant, glad to see I’m not the only one a little put out with Ann at the moment…
16 louielouie Says:
July 29th, 2005 at 2:36 am
the one thing i like about her is she doesn’t let anything the far left throws out, go, without commenting, responding, calling them out on it. in that vein, she does get down and dirty with them.
i think she is a huckster.
and dumb.
like a fox.
attractive thin blonde woman.
can she get a seat at this table.
yeessssir.
let her whip out the fangs and she’ll give as good as she gets.
i think her goal is long term.
i think she views ronald reagan as her father.
in thirty years i think she wants to be the ann richards, barbara bush, and walter chronkite(sp) of the day.
i think she’s a huckster.
it’s like leno said when the blue men were on the first time, “this ain’t your fathers’ tonight show”.
17 Mark Coffey Says:
July 29th, 2005 at 2:54 am
louielouie, your comment here is almost some sort of free form verse…you haven’t been hanging out at Rosie’s blog, have you?…
18 don surber Says:
July 29th, 2005 at 3:16 am
Better looking than Helen Thomas
Funnier than Al Franken
Skinnier than Lindsey Lohan
19 Greg Bullock Says:
July 29th, 2005 at 3:28 am
First, full disclosure: a friend of mine has dated Ann Coulter. Beyond that, Ill take the 5th.

In the latest incarnation, her essential premise is: we have the power, we won the power the power, so lets use the power to get what those who put us here want because we wont have the power forever. In short, let the right be the right and not feel it has to apologize for that.

From this position she argues her case well and with ferocity. I think her humor misses at least as often as often as it hits, but then people say that about me, too; she falls back on race baiting a bit too often for my tastes.

She is as of-this-time as anyone currently on the scene. She could not have existed 25 years ago and Ill wager that shell be gone, somewhere, in 10. Shes not going to be a Buckley or a Norm Podhertz or one of these folks whore relevant for decades. Though shes not quite a flash in the pan either.

Shes an entertainer and a millionaire many times over. Shes unique. Shes an American woman and it’s never been a better time to be one of those.
20 Andy Says:
July 29th, 2005 at 3:35 am
I like Ann. I don’t ‘love’ her as in being one of my faves that I can’t wait to read the latest. I haven’t read any of her books.

That said, I like her because she is witty and scathingly sharp. I read her columns as I happen upon them and will stay tuned if I know she’s about to come on the tube or radio.

A useful tool if you will in this war of words and ideas against the moonbats. I like her cause she lets me indulge the boy in me in bashing the moonbats, giving back as hard as they dish out the inane. When she’s said or wrote her piece, it’s back to the adult world for me. I see Ann as a release valve and a good one at that.

Now I would be concerned if we all became like kossack kiddies and channeled her into our every waking (and sleeping?) minute. I don’t think there are that many conservatives like that, at least I hope not, other than the Freepers, but then I don’t hang out there.

IOW she’s good at what she does and has the knack for making the lefties fit to be tied — strictly great entertainment value, but with a dose of truth.

Does any or all of that make sense?

With regards to Roberts, I heard most of Sean Hannity’s interview with her yesterday on the radio and she has some valid concerns. Not that I necessarily agree, but they’re valid from the perspective of one who’s been once bitten, twice shy.

All I can say is I sure she’s wrong. But when I look at the sentence and rationale handed down by a Reagan appointee to the Millenium Bomber, I just cross my fingers even tighter. Because no one can truly know the heart of a man/woman being considered for high office, track record notwithstanding.
21 Mark Coffey Says:
July 29th, 2005 at 4:13 am
See, this is why I asked you guys…I knew I would get a lot of different, intelligent perspectives…I think from all these opinions thus far, one theme that crosses through all of them is, hey, she’s right a good part of the time, wrong others, but usually entertaining about it…so as long as you don’t go nutso over her, what’s the harm?

And I can go along with that…
22 louielouie Says:
July 29th, 2005 at 5:27 am
Skinnier than Lindsey Lohan

scary.
if not impossible.

you haven’t been hanging out at Rosie’s blog, have you?…

and just how would you know/recognize the prose form/style?

actually, i have been listening/watching wwaaaaaaayy too much NASA TV. and no, i don’t give a crap about any force, or how long anyone lives, or if they prosper or not. my ears don’t need clipping, but my tail sometimes gets in the way.
23 Andy Says:
July 29th, 2005 at 7:40 am
GB, that was one strong point that I have to concur with Ann — Bush won dammit and he should take the opportunity to un-Bork the process. Afterall, going into the 04 elections, SCOTUS was very much on the short list of action items for most voters, even if it wasn’t overly discussed, given the advanced age of some.
24 Marcus Aurelius Says:
August 2nd, 2005 at 2:07 am
I agree with the comment that Ann’s biggest call is for the right to be the right.

I have a couple of her books and can not read too much at one sitting ’cause after a chapter or two I feel punch drunk (even though I am not getting hit).

On her website she a pic of her visiting a cemetary in my hometown, I blogged this with a plea for her to call the next time!