Is Ann Coulter Good?

Speaking of circuses, let's turn our gaze to Ann Coulter, a psychotic clown for the hard right and the subject of a Time Magazine story entitled "Ms. Right." They are taking her pretty seriously, apparently. There is a poll you can take at the Time Website (you can't read the article without suscribing to Time Magazine) which asks the musical question "Does Ann Coulter make a positive contribution to American political culture?" Go vote if you like (along the left side). Currently with 147,805 votes cast, 77.6% (or 114,696 people) say she doesn't.

Friday's Daily Howler points towards a reason people may not think she's a positive influence.

At present, about twenty percent of American adults identify themselves as "liberal." But according to Coulter, these people - one-fifth of the nation's population - are a group of "traitors" who are "out to destroy the American way of life!" Obviously, this is the view of a raving lunatic, if the view is sincerely held.

. . . Is Coulter sincere - or is she just playing the rubes, separating them from their money? We don't have the slightest idea. (For what it's worth, she has always struck us as the one public figure who may well be mentally ill.) But as almost any sane person can see, that is the work of a screaming nutcase if we assume that Coulter is sincere.

My take, for those who are curious, is that Ann likes money and so acts crazy so as to get more money. But I have no way of knowing, really.