USC Fake Republicans in the News:CNN ran an interview with a man named Eric Perlmutter who claimed that he was part of University’s College Republicans organization. He claimed:
“We try to get people out to our college Republican meetings, but … we can’t seem to draw the same kind of vocal support.”
It seems that CNN was punked. The real College Republicans said they’d never heard of him and CNN issued a correction. There’s an Eric Perlmutter listed in IMDB as a composer, but who knows if he’s the same guy. (The USC GOP has been contacted for comment, but has not yet returned our emails.)
Getting out the Republican Vote, the Sequel: Faced with a candidate in John McCain that most diehard Repubs are swallowing like a bitter pill, the right-wing activists in the party are hoping to galvanize voters via key ballot initiatives in swing states. Tearing a page from the 2004 Bush election, the LA Times notes that the right is hoping that ballot initiatives such as the anti-gay marriage initiatives in California, and others like it in Arizona and Florida will draw the right-wing voters to the polls in droves. Though the furor over gay marriage seems to have subsided, and is unlikely to make a huge dent in a state like California, in less blue states, such a strategy might tip the scales.
I spent $482 billion and all I got was this lousy t-shirt. Besides a bad taste, a bad war, and a bad reputation, Bush leaves the next president with a gargantuan mess. Thanks, don’t let the door hit your ass on the way out!
McCain’s skin in the news again: The Senator—who was diagnosed with skin cancer in 1993— underwent another biopsy recently, which he described as a routine check-up. At least we don’t have a candidate for the Presidency getting Botox.
Smart snarky Ann Coulter came to USC last week to spice up the Freedom Center’s weeklong campaign to convince college students of the danger posed by freedom-hating Islamic terrorists and the freedom-soft Democrats who won’t confront them. What did Coulter have to say about Islamo-Fascism? Not that much, it turned out.
I’ve always had a love-hate relationship with the conservative queen of cable news. As a member of the group she supposedly looks on with disdain, pity, disgust, I find myself disagreeing with her beliefs and bristling at the rude and intolerant packaging of her ideology. Yet I respect something about the ballsiness of the persona she has created.
So naturally I was intrigued to see how far the woman who berated 9/11 widows as self-serving and who recently chided Jews for needing perfecting would push the envelope in her address on Islamo-Fascism.
But when the flamingo-like human stepped on to the podium in a small basement auditorium at the Annenberg School, I couldn’t help but notice how fragile she looked in her signature two-sizes-too-small LBD. And as she started speaking—noticeably relying on her notes much more than you would expect from someone who spits out talking points to millions of viewers each week—her delivery was flat, her material tired. For the most part, to me at least, she sounded like a broken record, throwing below-the-belt jabs at the tweedy utterly mediocre Democratic Party.
When she did get around to Islamo-Fascism, it was merely to refer to Muslims as “camel riding Nomads†and to advocate dropping nukes on the Middle East.
It was clear that she was preaching to the choir (judging from the frequent applause and chuckles from the audience and the content of the q-and-a session), and many of the attendees we spoke to after the event found her remarks balanced and intelligent.
Attendee Julia Lindenthal said that, although Coulter’s more extreme words often catch the attention of the media, she thinks Coulter’s a reasonable, smart women, who—if you actually read her work, not just listen to the soudndbytes—makes strong, well-researched arguments.
Coulter’s talk—which was sponsored by the USC College Republicans and underwritten by both the Horowitz Center and the Young American Foundation to the tune of $10,000—was meant to further the notion that Islamo-Fascism is a world pandemic.
Ben Myer, representative of the College Republicans, emphasized the importance of spreading awareness of the threat.
USC College Republicans President Kip Payne assured me, as did the other USC College Republicans, that he has very very many Muslim friends, and said the group’s goal was to create dialogue about the threat of Islamo-Fascism, which he said referred only to the small number of Muslims whose actions pose a threat.
Ms. Coulter didn’t differentiate between extremist terrorists and the world’s 1 billion Muslims, but Payne didn’t seem too concerned with her generalities. “Her role wasn’t to clearly define every aspect of what the week is about, but instead to spark discussion,†he said.
One of the highlights of the night was when USC student and newspaper columnist Josh Sharp asked Coulter whether she thought the attention generated by her often outlandish remarks detracts from the factual and ideological foundations of her beliefs. She replied with a curt “no†and turned to the next question.
We asked some of the audience what they thought of Sharp’s proposition. Rudy 2008 volunteer Michael Escago, who came to the event in part to hand out Giuliani bumper stickers and collect signatures, said he thinks Coulter’s just being honest about her beliefs.
Myers commended Coulter for delivering her opinions in a style that resonates with students.
What did we learn at the Coulter Circus? Muslims hate America almost as much as do Democrats; Camp Delta at Guantanamo Bay, our illegal prison for un-fully represented terrorist suspects, might be compared to a freshman dorm because some of the detainees have gained weight; “fascism” is a malleable increasingly meaningless word; and Ann Coulter is really good at attracting fans who believe in what she has to say and are willing to come out in support of her sensationalist semantics.
A topic that could have sparked important discussion fizzled into the abyss of weekend costume parties and tailgates. What did the Horowitz Center get for its ten grand? It got Coulter unconvincingly underlining the radical Islamist political threat by delivering jokes about the incompetence of the left. That, and incredulous articles like this one on the whole nondiscussion that was IslamoFascism week.
—— Torey Van Oot is a P+P staff reporter. Video by staff editor and reporter Marissa Monroy.
