But she could have done it without the personal attacks...LOL!
That, of course, was precisely Mark Steyn's point. :o)
If she addressed the issue of "using victims as spokespeople who dare not be countered" in the non-confrontational manner that you propose, she would have been ignored -- as Mark and others were.It was ONLY because Ann was "in their face" that her argument broke through the MSM clutter and won the day.
ANN got battered in the process, but HER MESSAGE got through, where it had not previously.
I disagree. I recall several people, namely Bill O’Reilly and Rush Limbaugh making similar points and O’Reilly got quite a bit of press for his exchange with Letterman, without attacking Sheehan personally.
The fact is, people weren’t talking about the leftist tactic -— they were talking about what mean old Ann said. And to suggest that her attacks were successful because the Jersey Girls were relegated to the “fluff shows” is ludicrous. People who watch the hard news shows are opinionated and informed to begin with. The Jersey Girls wouldn’t have an impact in that venue anyway. People who are predisposed to the left would eat it up and those on the right would not. Instead, they were going all over shows like the Today Show and The View. Suddenly, they were household names in the apolitical homes where clueless people saw them as the poor widows being attacked by Ann.
Furthermore, for all the blather about the leftist tactic of the victim card “finally” being “exposed” by Coulter, it wasn’t a successful tactic to begin with. It didn’t work in 2002 with the Wellstone funeral. In fact, it backfired. The Jersey Girls didn’t help Kerry get elected in 2004. However, when Rush attacked the victim tactic in the 2006 election — and I do think Rush was portrayed unfairly — it was a disaster. Honestly, we would have been better off if we had stood back and let people see that for the shameless tactic it was. Instead, it looked like mean Rush picking on poor Michael J. Fox.
I realize there is no empirical data on the Ann Coulter effect. But the reality is the “victim card” didn’t seem to work pre-Coulter’s comment. The left continued to use the victim tactic post-Coulter’s comment and, it appears, it was successful. And while there is no study pertaining to Ann Coulter, there is a parallel study pertaining to Michael Moore and how those types of personal attacks backfire.