For deep & profound conservative ideas, I suggest you turn to Victor Davis HansonI also enjoy VDH, but I see no need to choose between the two.
I like them BOTH, for different reasons.Still, I would bet that if the imaginary Jack Ryan were to ever find himself in a nasty "verbal knife fight," he would GREATLY prefer having Ann watching his back. :o)
I own all of VDH's books and most of Ann's.
I agree there is no reason to prefer one to the other. I like steak and I love fast food. Depends on what I have the time for and what my mood is. It's easy to get emotional bolstered and motivated by a chapter by one of Ann's books. By contrast, the chapters in VDH's "Culture and Courage" is not meant to be motivational, but to make a specific point about the advantages of the Western mindset in military thinking.
VDH is the undisputed greatest living American military historian. He is a scholar and not particularly energetic on radio or TV. Ann is verbal Benihana... delicious AND entertaining. She is not a scholar like VDH but she excels in the kind of sound bites that people remember and talk about.
She is an excellent ambassador for Conservatives but I don't even she thinks of herself as a scholar whose works might be read by other scholars 50 or 100 years from now.
For the record, VDH remains a registered Democrat but has no connection to them on foreign policy.
I had empathy for Ann last night. Major League Baseball players are exhausted by a 162-game season. Ann's 2005 schedule is AT LEAST as demanding.
My guess is that after 2-3 days of keeping her current pace, any of us would lose weight and beg for rest, too. Ann can't appear cranky or else her liberal foes would seize on that. How many of us could do what she does for as long or 1/10th as well and not be cranky?!? In the meantime, Ann has to leverage her recent Time cover exposure while she can... it's not likely to ever happen again. Outside of Rush has any conservative pundit appeared on two covers of Time since 1980?
Anyone who felt slighted by not getting "enough of Ann" last night needs to reassess their opinions.
Frankly, Ann's writing and speaking does more for all of us than hanging out with us.
We were lucky. I am grateful. And THANK YOU RONDOG for helping coordinate this!