"I went to a place to eat. It said 'breakfast at any time.' So I ordered french toast during the Renaissance". --Steven Wright ... If you are a devotee of time travel, check out this song...

Wednesday, June 27, 2007

Hardball II: John Edwards about Ann Coulter

A day after Ann Coulter wondered why Elizabeth Edwards, not John Edwards, was calling her out about her personal attacks, Hardball made the good move of bringing John Edwards on to give his views on this important matter.

Firs, to reiterate what I said earlier - Elizabeth Edwards had every right to confront Ann Coulter about the personal attacks, since they were, indeed, personal attacks directed not just against John Edwards but his family. Elizabeth would have had every right to take Coulter on, politically, too, but the personal nature of Coulter's attacks made Elizabeth's responses especially appropriate.

John Edwards made the important points in his Hardball appearance a few minutes ago: people, candidates included, have to speak out against the kind of vicious attacks that Coulter and others regularly dish out. The attacks have not been limited to Edwards. As he pointed on Hardball, Hillary's appearance and Barack Obama's name have been Coulter targets.

These kinds of attacks are not the end of the world, but there is no reason that people have to keep silent about them. If we want political campaigns to be more focused on issues, we should join the Edwards in speaking out against Ann Coulter.

And why shouldn't Edwards use this issue to raise money for his campaign? Campaigns against vicious commentators like Ann Coulter cost money...

Next, it would nice to see a little less of her on television. Will the 24/7 all-news cable stations have the courage to rise to that challenge? As things stand now, they're enablers of Ann Coulter's invective.

See also: Real Hardball: Elizabeth Edwards v. Ann Coulter ... John Edwards' Favorite Book

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8 comments:

Karen said...

Totally agree with you, Paul. Let's all speak out about the need for real issues, not vicious personal attacks.

And let's see the media shun Coulter for the publicity hound and irrelevant hate-monger she is!

Anonymous said...

Hey Paul,

I agree, and blogged about it, as well.

I find it fascinating that people would question why Elizabeth called in, instead of John. Wade was her son, too.

This gives a whole new meaning to "the personal is political," no?

Paul Levinson said...

karen - well said!

brad - good blog post! (we levs think along the same lines)...

dawn said...

I don't know why the media gives this woman an outlet. It just puts money in her pocket. Maybe Ann needs a scrooge type dream to make her a semi normal person

Anthony, VoteWriteIn.com Founder said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Paul Levinson said...

Just for the record: I removed the above comment because, as much as I dislike Ann Coulter, I won't publish comments in this blog which stoop to her level in their critiques.

In contrast - good thought, Dawn.

badthing1 said...

Hi Paul,

I completely agree with you regarding Ann Coulter and her personal, vicious, attack-dog style of verbal abuse.

How she can have such a large following is genuinely astonishing to me but then the image of a bully and his followers ganging up on a person in a schoolyard flashes into my mind and then I realize that bully Coulter possesses the very same mentality.

Thank you for becoming a part of my Twitter - I am honored to have your presence there sir! :)

Paul Levinson said...

My pleasure, badthing - your blog and its quest for peace is a very good thing!

Paul

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