Ann Coulter is a genius. All she has to do is shake that stringy blonde hair, prance around in tight mini skirts, show her rail thin, pale white legs, spew foul-mouthed expletives about her favorite whipping boy, liberals and the so-called liberal media and the tongues roar furiously. Coulter's payoff: off the chart book sales, jingling cash registers, insanely high program ratings, and a perpetual trot to TV talk shows.
Coulter displays her special genius again with a well-leaked drib from her new liberal bash book Guilty about Michelle Obama. Her bash is not about Michelle's education, politics, or her marriage to the president-elect. No, she skewered for her dress, jewelry, hair, and her alleged poor woman's imitation of Jackie O. Unlike her ritual liberal hit pieces, Coulter knows that a Michelle hector will send the tongues hurtling into orbit. Why, because unlike hubby Barack, a lot of people plainly don't like Michelle. Her unfavorable ratings soared during the campaign when she uttered an unguarded moment, ill-timed, intemperate, out of context, perceived insulting and disgruntled quip about God, country and the flag. Since her hubby's ratings are off the chart, what better straw woman for Coulter than the first lady to be.
Pure genius; genius because it will work. Her book will fly off the shelves. Coulter will dash around on the talk and lecture circuit, and the cash registers will again jingle off the hook.
Coulter, of course, will get the usual public pounding as a washed out, loud mouthed, right wing shill. She'll be privately and less charitably pounded as a mic and camera chasing "B", "C" and "W" word. And she'll love every call out of her name insult, slam, dig, knock, hit, and rap she gets. If she can get a Michelle camp retort it would be the icing on the cake. The cancellation of her scheduled appearance on the NBC Today Show to hype the book notwithstanding, Coulter sure knows how to work the crowd. That takes genius.
Earl Ofari Hutchinson is an author and political analyst. His forthcoming book is "How Obama Won" (Middle Passage Press, January 2009).