Meghan McCain: Ann Coulter 'Offensive, Insulting, Confusing'

Meghan McCain, self-styled Republican party critic and Daily Beast blogger, has a serious beef with Ann Coulter.

I straight up don't understand this woman or her popularity. I find her offensive, radical, insulting, and confusing all at the same time. But no matter how much you or I disagree with her, the cult that follows Coulter cannot be denied.

McCain takes issue with the fact that Coulter is reliably one of the most public faces of the struggling-to-find-its-new-image party, because she is easily pushing away the few members the party has left.

... But here is what I don't get about Coulter: Is she for real or not? Are some of her statements just gimmicks to gain publicity for her books or does she actually believe the things she says? Does she really believe all Jewish people should be "perfected" and become Christians? And what was she thinking when she said Hillary Clinton was more conservative than my father during the last election? If you truly have the GOP's best interests at heart, how can you possibly justify telling an audience of millions that a Democrat would be a better leader than the Republican presidential candidate?

McCain goes on to suggest that if she herself, the daughter of a former GOP presidential candidate, is regularly turned off by Coulter's extremist antics, what must the general public think?

McCain is equally baffled by the GOP's official leadership. In an ABC radio interview, she admits she doesn't understand Michael Steele's new "hip hop" strategy.

If you're saying I want people from the hip-hop community -- I don't even know what that means exactly -- I guess people that are in the music industry could become more closer and you know try and become Republicans (sic). I just don't think that is going to work. I think they need to rely on a message that is going to really stick with people of my generation.

And in a previous Daily Beast post, the campaign blogger expressed frustration with the lack of Internet savvy in the Republican party.

Comments

[ebanks84]

Wow! I'm impressed. A sane republican speaks finally. Thank you Meghan for sounding like a human being in the republican party. They need more like you.

[MargaretO]

Yes, Meghan, Ann is all those things, but so is your father. Sorry, but it is true. He offended us with his pick for V.P., he insulted us continually by acting like we would fall for his ruse and he's a very confused man.

[janeInCA]

Meghan for RNC Chair.

[MajorKong]

"I straight up don't understand this woman or her popularity­."

It's simple. She pisses off liberals. Pissing off liberals is the only thing that gets much of the Republican base out of bed in the morning.

[toje]

If you don't understand this woman or her popularity, you are simply a Progressive who is incapable of self critique.

[FR]

Sorry, I think Kong understood her popularity exactly right.
She lives entirely off one stupidly predictable mantra:
everything liberal is bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad.

[MajorKong]

Her whole act is to say the most outrageous thing she can think of and then play the victim when somebody actually calls her on it.

[MarianneEvans11]

I don't trust her or her father. I think she is doing her father's job which he doesn't have the b*lls to voice opinion. Sorry, Meghan....­.I hope that you are conveying your own thoughts and not the words of your dad.

Good Luck in your future!

[hortonhearsawho2]

So, after all these years, she has turned the volume on the television up ... of course she might have read something, giving her the benefit of the doubt ...

[enjen]

Her points are simple but true. It would be great if she could start offering solutions to how the GOP could connect with her generation, but my guess is she is just as clueless as every other Republican. As to her comment that the cult of Coulter cannot be denied -- well, if the GOP could start denying it, you might win some of that general public over to your side. I'm just sayin'.

[BassMent]

Good point enjen.

In the Reagan era, "the base" for the GOP included a broad swath of conservative Democrats, and the party was consistently able to unite this large base with center-right swing voters and win elections.

But since the Clinton administration, the GOP has been narrowing its notion of "the base" with each passing election cycle. Now they are bending over backwards to hold on to and fire up a base which is becoming increasingly extremist and decreasingly relevant in today's political climate. To hold on to the Coulter and Limbaugh fans, they alientate the 70% of the country that's simply not reactionary and is not going to become so.

When they had Bill and his cigars and Hillary and her health plan to rail against, their spittle-flecked rantings were appropriate to activate their base. But now they're up against an administration led by a calm, rational intellectual who is reminding the majority of Americans what leadership is supposed to look like, and it's clearly more than screaming "no" at the top of your voice.

The Catch-22 for the GOP now is that without the loonies, they can't pull together enough voters to win a nationwide election..­. and WITH the loonies, the same holds true (but for different reasons).

[toje]

Barak Obama has done more in 50 days to fire up the Conservative Movement than anything Ann Coulter has done in the past 8 years.

[ultrabop]

Good for you, Meghan, you're fighting back...

I've always wondered myself what Ann Coulter is really thinking because she doesn't sound stupid in the way that she delivers her message--(kind of a blue blood intonation)--but the message itself is quite trailer trash and nonsensical.

she is obviously trying to sell books. that's all it is. she isn't smart enough to realize that she is alienating the very people who would buy those books--people who actually read.

[hortonhearsawho2]

Mudwrestling ?

[wagadog]

Megan: "But but but...cons­ervative = good, right? So why are all these people that call themselves conservatives so...so mean and selfish?"

The cognitive dissonance is delicious.

[You]

Yes, a young mind starting to think for herself is really refreshing, isn't it?

[ShakeYourComplacency]

The real question is, if Meghan has a head on her shoulders, why is she a republican in this day and age? If not a democract, why wouldn't she at least be an independent? What could that party possibly hold for her and why doesn't she find it as offensive as Ann Coulter? For 8 years or more, the GOP was corrupt, many members discredited or in jail, they divided the country with a culture war and economically ran it into the ground. What's to like?

[Schoolgirl666]

She was a democrat..­...She gave her father a Father's Day present by becoming a Republican­...
The gift that keeps on giving....­I thought most fathers were satisfied with a tie!!!

[pewty]

Daddy would cut her off and write her out of the will if she went Dome....

[pewty]

ooops Demo

[hackerblaster]

Maybe she needs to make her own money before she comes out of the closet. Don't forget her dad ran for president on the repub ticket and her mom is a gazillionaire. Her leaving the repub party might get her smacked down and disowned. you know...the republican way.

[Aramingo]

Coulter Uses Nasty Tactics. She Can't Understand Normal Thinking. Good for you Meghan!

[kentatm]

the more I here from Ms McCain the more I wish more Republicans were as even minded as she is.

Unfortunately the Republicans are far too beholden to their more far right side right now to gain those in the middle that would be more likely to vote for them.

[AngusC]

I am liking Meghan more and more, maybe I will take her out on a date, lol.

[WendyInCA]

Oh Meghan...a­nd this is news to you? Ann Coulter was a supporter of your father, too, ya know.