As to your commentary, I find it peurile (”s****y conservative commentator”)... -- from your message to NedSee: I edit out the off-color words posted by EVERYBODY.
I'm "old school" FR. Posting words like that USED to be frowned on here. It coarsens the debate, IMHO.Here is MORE from Ned, about Ann's speech:
Inside Coulterfest ‘08
By Ned Resnikoff - Dec 11th, 2008 at 3:51 pmI do my best to avoid shamelessly plugging my extra-curricular projects on Pushback, but in this case I’m going to give in to that temptation and highlight my penultimate post on NYU Local: a rundown of Ann Coulter’s speech last night at NYU.
I want to expand on a couple points in the piece, because I don’t think they’re specific just to Ann Coulter. One is the emphasis of political theater over actual political commentary; you can find this everywhere, but particularly in certain corners of the right: Coulter, O’Reilly, Hannity, Limbaugh, etc. It’s one area where the right has a definite edge over left-wing punditry, but while that’s good for ratings, it’s problematic for a host of other reasons. Which brings me to the final point I made in the piece: that the College Republicans made a huge error by inviting a mudslinger like Coulter to speak instead of an actual conservative thinker.
It’s a sad reflection of what’s happening to the conservative movement on the national level: as long as people like Coulter are the public face of conservatism instead of, say, Douthat, Larison, or Salam, then it’s just going to more and more resemble a fringe movement.
Finally, one thing I barely touched on in the piece: Ann Coulter’s weird, latent anti-Semitism, or at least paternalism and condescension towards Jews. Check out her response to my question about the left and Judaism:
YouTube video: Ann Coullter QuestionAs far as I can make out, she thinks that Jews overwhelmingly vote for progressive candidates because we used to be the left’s celebrity victims–thanks, Holocaust!–but now we’re too ignorant to realize that they’ve moved on to terrorists and sodomites and somesuch.
It’s hard to tell though, given that her response (like most of the responses she gave to serious questions) was borderline incoherent.
December 11, 2008
Ann Coulter Bombs at NYUNYU student and blogger Ned Resnikoff's account of Anne Coulter's appearance at the university last night is so sharp you'd think the kid has a bright future in journalism ahead of him, if it wasn't for journalism's implosion: "Once you realize that the dog whistles are really all she has to offer, you finally understand what Ann Coulter’s all about.
She’s about as much a serious political commentator as Carlos Mencia is; both go for cheap laughs by playing off of the worst in human nature... Unfortunately, my real question of the night never got asked: What the f*** were the NYU Republicans thinking? Ann Coulter hasn’t been politically relevant since she called Edwards a fag
...Alas, the fact that College Republicans invited someone as alienating and nakedly anti-intellectual as Ann Coulter is just a metaphor for what you see happening to the Republican Party on the national level: the moderate voices of reason are getting ignored or marginalized, while the true believers burrow further into the warm, velvety soft cocoon of their own a******s."
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joevoter (25): Bombed?
I was there, and contrary to the "commentary" of this blogging youngster who clearly needs to establish himself as a worthy member of the lefty blogging media so he can earn his .000025 cents per page view salary in the future, Ann was quite well received by an audience of 300-400 primarily young college students.
She was given two standing ovations and much applause and laughter all around. A good time was observed to be had by all.
I know that bit of news is probably as distressing to you all as Obama's cabinet picks are to the Daily Kos basement dwellers, but them's the facts
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mfER (27): ...@25. I am sure you wet yourself during the ovation. Or twice during the 2 standing ovations. Nice.
Now sit down and comtemplate on the fact that you are in love with a giraffe...
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joevoter (29): @27 I'm actually a GIRL, so wrong again!
And I happen to be taller than Ann~so wrong again!
And a socially liberal Republican who doesnt agree with bunches of what she said, but she was still cooler, funnier and classier than any lame ass, living off my parents baby blogger could hope to be.
BTW if you were Israeli, would you REALLY think a Democrat would defend your statehood better than a Republican?