Daily Archives: February 5, 2008

Last Friday a good friend of mine for the past 22 years called me to see if I could rush to a television, turn on Fox and watch Ann Coulter rip on John McCain. I couldn’t do that at the office, but I finally took a minute to find it on YouTube this morning.

I know of no pen more poisonous than Coulter’s – part satirist, part bomb thrower, part intellectual and all doctrinaire conservative. I’ve grown tired of Ann over the years as I can’t see how her style will ever do anything to unite Americans. Calling into question the intelligence and morals of your political opponents is no way to engage people in debate. Anyway, say what you will about her manners – I’ve never seen any source that’s done a good job of debunking her on matters of fact (though Al Franken would say otherwise). In the video below you can get a taste for just how divided the Republican base is during this primary season. As I argued here, I continue to believe that this will spell doom for Republican ambitions this fall.

The conservative awakening that is backing Romney by attacking McCain is too negative, too little and too late to make a difference for the Republicans in November. It is never too late to divide allies from one another however, and that is precisely what continues to happen as we make our way through this primary season. Win or lose, what kind of shape will that leave Republicans in after election day?

By the way, if you are a Democrat reading this with glee, I urge you to reconsider your attitude. Strong, principled parties can disagree but in the end will produce better results than weak and cynical ones will. Look no further than our national debt, our steadfast refusal to face reality in the coming years on Social Security and our manifold other crises to see my point. I doubt that the Founding Fathers figured out how to give birth to our country by calling each other names in Philadelphia that summer so long ago, and they had some really divisive issues at that time. Take slavery as just one example! How far we’ve fallen since then.

Could some one turn down the volume so we can hear each other? Please?