ANN COULTER AND AL FRANKEN JUST DUKED IT OUT IN HARTFORD

self | 05/14/04 | Self

[RaceBannon]

I just returned from a debate between Ann Coulter and Al Franken held at the Bushnell Auditorium in Hartford, Connecticut.

[Euro-American Scum]

I just returned from a debate between Ann Coulter and Al Franken held at the Bushnell Auditorium in Hartford, Connecticut.

This is one woman with a yard of guts to go into that lion's den. Conservative babes with some spine are so hot, I just can't tell you.

[swampfox98]

Hartford is enemy territory -

Or in other words, Ann shouldn't cast her pearls before swine.

[cold_daknight]

All reputable sources say that Ann TOTALLY SMOKED AL FRANKEN!! The RAT crowd was against her, but Ann calmly stood her ground and cut franken to pieces. She handled loaded questions with the cool demeanor of a wild west gunslinger. Franken, on the other hand, was left with some tired lefty cliches. The mob was always shamed into silence whenever Ann spoke the truth and knocked their agruments to the ground. The Rats were on the run and the Queen was kicking ass and taking names. This was yet another big win for the good guys and you can bet that Franken and Rats will not want to meet Ann anytime soon.

The best line of the night was when Coulter zinged the Rats by saying that if she could be anyone in history, it would be FDR so she could stop the New Deal. The Rats hissed and glowered but they knew that resistance to the Queen was futile. She crushed them and that's simply the way it went.

[FrankR]

Well, I suppose there is some point to all of that, but for the life of me, I don't know what it is other than trying to play one-upmanship with each other.

Bottom line, anyone sensible enough to be conservative and have conservative values is not going to be swayed by the al frankens of the world. Conservatives see the idiot for what he is, a raving, maniacal, liberal having a tantrum for not getting his way.

The crowds' hostility toward Ann means nothing in the grand scheme of things, conservatism still trumps liberalism a hundred-fold. I recall some early appearance that Rush made, where the crowd got to violent toward him, they had to clear the room so they could finish filming the show...but, that does not, and did not keep Rush from becoming the considerable conservative influence that he is...that did not make the liberals less threatened by him.

As usual, liberals don't understand that occasionally winning a battle, does not win the war. There are some very talented orators in liberal-land...by nature being phonies and wiseacres, they sometimes command the attention they crave, but usually at the expense and embarassment of others.

Case in point, the "soldiers" that did the prison abuse...they got their "attention" at the expense of others, and have now provided a momentary hoo-rah to the liberals and a minor setback to the cause in the Middle EAst.

But as usual, liberals pick and choose what...or I should say "why" some event incenses them, or not. In the case of Nick Berg, they feign anger merely as a political tool to try to bash Bush.

The funny part is, after you watch liberals for a short while, they are so predictable it's not funny. FAr be it from any liberal to confuse morals with a desire for power...any means to any end is ok when them...no matter what the long term costs.

Like children...they tantrum when they don't get their way, and plan no further than their next orgy.

So let franken have his limelight in a liberal political arena...sure he gets the camera and the applause...but in the land of mental midgets, the one with and IQ over room temperature is king.

[RaceBannon]

Yes, we all caught the FDR comment, but Franken's response!!

(FOR THOSE WHO WEREN'T THERE: BOTH SPEAKERS WERE ASKED WHO IN HISTORY THEY WOULD GO BACK IN TIME TO BE. I saw it as a chance to re-live the life of a hero like George Washington, to see the times of his life and the era, that is who I would have responded with.

Ann said she wanted to be FDR and make sure the new deal never happened and that the Communist infiltration of our country was stopped or never happened, referring to her latest book TREASON.

Franken admitted he had more time to think out his response and said he would go back in time to be Hitler and stop the holocaust.)

Here is something that I sent someone about the debate in an e-mail:

appearance-appearance-appearance

Ann countered everything, and used supporting facts, and didn’t appeal to how we need to feel sorry for her like he did.

His tactics I believe were intentional, not just pathologic; he used emotional scenes of his life and recent events and played them up big time, forcing Ann into a corner in order to respond.

That Hitler comment? Ann kept the debate on American politics, chose a worthy person (FDR) to re-do, and what did he do?

He played the audience.

Ann played the question, he played the audience.

Ann kept it on liberals, he switched it to emotions.

I don’t know if I would call that fair or unfair, anything goes in that forum, but that was a cheap shot on his part, anyone can play CAN YOU TOP THIS. The three of us thought it was a cheap shot, that’s for sure, I immediately thought of the repetitive NAZI slanders that are made against republicans, I thought he was going to connect it to his Hitler comment, but then he played on the Holocaust and forced Ann to constantly think of how to not sound like an anti-Semite with any future comments.

He should have jumped up with her on her responses on profiling, if he is going to bring up Hitler and the Holocaust but not back up profiling with stronger words…he once again refused to play the facts, he played the crowd.

I think there is a difference between being beaten by a better fighter, which she wasn't, and being beaten in an argument by someone who suckered you!

I can’t see how he could have prepared for his comments, but boy did he play his openings. And that scumbag changed the direction of the debate from American politics to feeling sorry for him as someone who lost his Mom, to feel sorry for him for being a Jew, to take a single sentence out of context and take over 5 minutes to just repeat I QUOTE…

Someone on FR said she was/is too polite, I think she did fine that way, she is an adult, they are going to slander her anyways.

Through it all, Ann proved, to anyone who cared to pay attention, that liberals respond with emotion, while Conservatives respond with facts. Just like her doll says, At least when right wingers rant, there’s a point!

[nutmeg]

Last night we attended "A Conversation Between Al Franken & Ann Coulter" (note who is billed first) at The Connecticut Forum, held at the beautiful Bushnell Auditorium in Hartford, CT. We met FReeper RaceBannon there, and had seats in the balcony (far from the stage, unfortunately). There was an audience of 2,800 people in the main venue, with a "simulcast" of the debate at another location across town (not sure how many were in the audience there). Both of these venues were sold out!

There was no doubt last night that we were deep in the heart of Blue State country. We saw more Kerry bumper stickers on cars in the Bushnell parking lot by far than we saw in an entire weekend in the Boston, MA area last week. Lots of anti-Bush, peace sign and Nader bumper stickers as well. As we entered the venue, we passed by a small crowd of unwashed Bush-hating leftists demonstrating right next to the entrance.

It was appalling just how hostile the crowd was against Ann, President Bush... anyone and anything conservative. We overheard numerous negative comments directed toward Ann, President Bush, Rumsfeld, Ashcroft, anyone on the right, before and after the event, and during the intermission.

So the deck was immediately stacked against Ann from the start. The format was conducive to Franken's style, favoring a comedian who can come up with sarcastic, impromptu one-liners that play on the crowd's emotion in an instant (not that Ann is not incapable of coming up with some good one-liners of her own). The overall subject matter was somewhat disappointing, as moderator Steve Roberts chose some odd questions to start the program. The second half of the program consisted of answers to written questions submitted by the audience, many of them silly, like asking each what they liked about the other, with the topics degenerating into several tangents on many occasions.

Franken showed up on the stage with a bag filled with Ann's books and pages of notes (ie Nexis searches) to assist him in trying to disprove quotes in her books. He freely admitted it was research done by his "research staff". Ann appeared to have no notes. At first we thought, how stupid... Al needs reams of notes as a crutch in this debate, but he came off as being better prepared than Ann, I'm sorry to say. (Better prepared, perhaps, but armed with lies and incorrect, out-of-context "facts".)

Franken took a lot of time contesting quotes from Ann's books (mostly "Treason", we think). Ann would respond to these comments, then the conversation frequently drifted. At one point, it drifted into more than five minutes of Franken claiming that Ann had at some time in the past lied about her age, which left the audience wondering why this was soooo important to Al. Also, he criticized Ann for the "tone" of her overall message and read from her book several adjectives Ann used to describe liberals (stupid, ignorant, lazy), but he was thoroughly rebuffed when someone in the audience yelled "Big Fat Liar??" That got a lot of laughs, but got Al going on a list of adjectives describing varying degrees of "fatness." He also at some point made a reference to "pills" and to Rush Limbaugh's maid (receiving hoots and thundering applause from the audience).

Ann's theme was pretty much about how liberals keep tearing down America. She spoke how conservatives have been generally reviled over the past several decades, and gave the example of President Ronald Reagan: "Reagan only freed 200 million people, with his ending of the Cold War" (paraphrase). This comment came near the end of the debate, and after an evening filled with jeers and guffaws for Ann, you could almost hear a pin drop after THAT comment (with the exception of the smattering of applause from us conservatives).

I have to admit we both cringed every time Ann used the term "swarthy guys" last night. Of course we conservatives all know what she means about the reluctance of the Feds to profile Arab/Muslim men on flights, but it doesn't do our side any favors to reinforce the 'right-wing' stereotype.

Franken was extremely critical - even disrespectful - of Rumsfeld. In the same general comments, he also made the idiotic statement of how we initially won in Iraq with "Clinton's military" - and that Rumsfeld has been destroying the progress that Clinton had made in re-arming America during his administration (my paraphrase). Amazingly with such a liberal audience, there were many jeers and howls over THAT statement! LOL

At the conclusion of the debate, Zelig immediately left the balcony, and managed to run down to the stage and say hello to Ann. He mentioned to her that "we three FReepers risked our lives up there in the balcony for you!" (with our applause within a sea of leftists). Ann smiled and expressed her appreciation. She autographed Zelig's program with: "To the great Freepers! Best, Ann Coulter". Ann - up close - is just beautiful, and looks far, far younger than her years (early 40s?). Last night, she was dressed in a similar outfit as her action figure.

In sum, Al just dominated the debate, and the audience enthusiastically encouraged him on with their cheers and wild applause, while Ann - clearly armed with more actual FACTS than Al - didn't stand much of a chance, no matter what she said. A bit of a frustrating evening last night for us up here in the Blue Zone, unfortunately.

nutmeg & zelig

[nutmeg]

Finally... our report is in #66.

nutmeg & zelig

[nutmeg]

Franken, on the other hand, was left with some tired lefty cliches. The mob was always shamed into silence whenever Ann spoke the truth and knocked their agruments to the ground.

Yeah, I do recall a few instances (when Ann could actually speak over Franken) of that "shamed silence" last night (it was priceless!). Were you there last night?

[RaceBannon]

Political Matchup Rains Low Blows
Connecticut Forum Referees Ann Coulter And Al Franken At The Bushnell

May 15, 2004
By TARA WEISS, Courant Staff Writer

The evening was titled "A Conversation Between Al Franken & Ann Coulter," but it was more a verbal schoolyard brawl, where even the teacher attempting to break it up got a bloody nose.

http://www.ctnow.com/news/yahoo/hc-franken.artmay15,1,4653252.story?coll=hc-aol-yahoo-nws-hed

[nutmeg]

Franken finds something silly and trivial -- was Lott "booed off the stage" at the Wellstone ceremony? -- and then strikes the "I demand an answer" pose. (A favorite tactic of Hillary, by the way.) The fact that the trick question is irrelevant (Lott was indeed booed at the ceremony, but "off the stage" is just rhetoric) is lost on the audience. Attempts to clarify the point are me by the antagonist with the accusation that "you're dodging the question" and the renewed demand: "Yes or no?"

Exactly... you nailed it! The whole statement was lost on the audience, but they loudly encouraged Al on, no matter. So much time was wasted on this "trick question" last night that I'm surprised Ann didn't walk off the stage.

[RaceBannon]

http://www.ctnow.com/news/yahoo/hc-coulterfranken-message,1,5571054.graffitiboard?coll=hc-aol-yahoo-nws-hed

Comments on the debate last night on CTNOW.COM

[nutmeg]

We were with Race up in the balcony at the Bushnell last night. Sure wish we could've met you, and the other conservatives (all 5% of them) who were in the Bushnell audience! :-)

No conservatives at all up in our section. We had a liberal family sitting in front of us with two boys, ages approximately 11 and 13. The younger boy's question was asked during the question period: "Do you think Rumsfeld should resign?". When his question was asked, there were high-fives all over the place. They clearly hated everything Ann said. So sad, to see parents bringing up such liberal kids...

nutmeg & zelig

[nutmeg]

Check out our little adventure with Ann & Al last night. Race's report is in #1, nutmeg & zelig's in #66.

Please FReepmail me if you want on or off my infrequent ‘miscellaneous’ ping list.

[nutmeg]

Check out our little adventure with Ann & Al last night. Race's report is in #1, nutmeg & zelig's in #66.

[nutmeg]

Check out our little adventure with Ann & Al last night. Race's report is in #1, nutmeg & zelig's in #66.

Please Freepmail me if you want on or off my infrequent Connecticut ping list.

[nutmeg]

Race, I can't see most of your pics in #1 and #3!

[nutmeg]

Thanks... will check in a minute. Tough to sit for this long at the computer with my sore back... :(

[RaceBannon]

mywebpage.netscape.com seems to have died, I cannot even access the pictures from my home page there.

[Vinnie]

His tactics I believe were intentional, not just pathologic; he used emotional scenes of his life and recent events and played them up big time, forcing Ann into a corner in order to respond.

That's pretty much the difference between a conservative and a liberal.

A conservative uses logic, action, consequences.
A liberal uses emotion, intentions to govern their ideas.
What does a liberal reporter ask an interviewee concerning an event? "How do you feel about ..."

[winker]

Frankenstein on the ropes; hang him out to dry and twist in the wind!