Idiots show how not to ask Ann Coulter questions: Mike Tracey, We Are Change, Bob McKeown

A trio of stooges are here to show how not to ask Ann Coulter - or anyone else - questions. I don't necessarily want to have anyone discredit Ann Coulter by asking her the right question in the right way, but, given at least the first two there isn't much danger of that.

1. The latest happened at the College of New Jersey where student Mike Tracey - also a leader of the College Democrats - asked Coulter a less intelligent question along the lines of "Since you said Democrats are sympathetic to terrorists because the president has Hussein as a middle name, are you saying that all people with Muslim sounding names are sympathetic to terrorists?" (link). She apparently just called the question "stupid" and moved on. That wasn't enough for Tracy who, by his own account, during the book-signing portion, "side-stepped" two attendants who told him only those with books were allowed to be in line (facebook.com/group.php?gid=51351209006). Guards then told him to leave and he apparently ran into the seats instead, whereupon he was restrained and arrested. Video here. What he should have done is a) come up with a better, less smeary question, and b) get video of her response. If she won't answer, send others to her future events to keep asking questions. Just don't engage in behavior that - once again by Tracey's own admission - could be seen as threatening.

2. Earlier this month, the stooges from We Are Change's L.A. branch attended a Coulter book signing at the Richard M. Nixon Library, and launched into their incoherent spiel about Building 7 (video link). They were asked to leave; at least they did so without having to be arrested. The first part of their "question" was just incoherent babble that most people in the U.S. have never heard of. The second part was a little better, asking her is she'd support a new investigation. If they were going to ask her a question they should have concentrated on that and mentioned the names of (coherent) people who've raised questions about the investigation that was done. This video did nothing beyond slightly burnishing their in-group cred; the makers are completely unaware of how bad they make themselves look to everyone else.

3. The last example is much more pernicious and involves an interview Coulter did with Bob McKeown of the CBC in 2005. The video (link) has almost 400,000 views and consists of a gotcha! from McKeown where he claims that - despite what Coulter claims - Canada never sent troops to Vietnam. He unequivocally states that Canada did not send troops, which may be strictly correct in the purest Clintonian parsing. There were Canadians in Vietnam, including over 100 who died and including personnel sent by the Canadian government. And Canada did send a large amount of materiel for use in that war. See this, this, and this.

Thu, 02/26/2009 - 22:27 · · Importance: 4