Thats right. Ann Coulter was speaking at UConn today.
And she packed the Jorgensen (2640 seats…or so). This is basically the College Republicans’ response to Cindy Sheehan’s talk on Monday this week. Unfortunately, I didn’t know about Sheehan until Tuesday, so I don’t know how many people were there or how crazy she was (but I can guess).
There is a huge line outside, where people are waiting in the friggin cold to get in. Some people decided to take advantage of all the people just chilling there to pass out some flyers. All were more or less anti Coulter, but some were more fun than others. My personal favourite:
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Anyway, once we got inside, we figured out why the line was moving so slowly. Everyone who went in was getting frisked, and no backpacks, food, or…well…anything was being allowed in. The frisking was pretty half assed, if I must say. My friend got a knife in (not malicious, just something he carries), and the guard apparantly didn’t notice the huge lump that was my cell phone. Whatever.
We actually got decent seats, on the left (heh) hand side, about five rows from the stage. Kinda wish I knew we would be sitting behind the College Republicans before hand, but alas, there was no turning back.
Ann shows up late, which was extremely annoying, because I was coming down from a sugar high (about an entire package of Swedish Fish). First thing I notice – she is really, really skinny. She’d make Lindsay Lohan look fat. She was accompanied by three dudes in suits who I assumed were body guards, although I was pretty sure they couldn’t stop anyone. Maybe its just the suits that do that to them. Either way, I don’t notice anything for about five minutes because the College Republicans decided she deserved a standing ovation.
Now, for some reason, I honestly thought she’d be using this chance to actually talk about her views, and perhaps try to convince people she actually knew what she was talking about. But no, her talk consisted of ad hominem attacks against Democratic Party members and other people who didn’t agree with her views.
She didn’t explain why or how these people were wrong, but rest assured, they were. Again, I didn’t see Sheehan’s talk, and it probably wasn’t much better (I’m not a fan of either of these women for the record), but I sincerely hope it was more to the point than Ann’s.
Her talk was cut short, however, by someone who tapped into the PA system. I’m not sure if it was the main PA or another set of speakers, but the song Kyle’s Mom is a Bitch from the South Park Movie started to blast. She stopped talking until they figured out how to silence this song, which was a solid five to eight minutes.
Now, I thought this was funny, and a pretty good prank by whoever pulled it off. But it should have stopped sooner. Once they had ‘fixed’ this, she had a few breif words with the body guard standing next to her (seriously, I think I could take this guy out) and announced that she’d be going straight to the Q & A portion of the night.
Seeing how her talk had been going, this was a welcome change of events.
Now, couple things about the Q & A. It really could have done without the insults and the ass-kissing. Both were really annoying, and sucked up time. None were too original or very funny. Some notable questions were (I’m paraphrasing):
Which brand of pen do you use to draw your Hitler moustashe?
And
Is there anything that you could tell us that we don’t know about you?
That question was asked, sincerely, by one of her supporters. There were some good responses from the audience, like “I enjoy long walks on the beach…”, etc.
What I did like about the Q & A section was it actually got her to answer some questions and share her views, which she was obviously never getting to in her talk. Some good questions:
Student: “What would you tell your son if he came out of the closet?”
Ann: ” ‘Did I mention you’re adopted?’ “
Student: “How do you feel about premarital sex?”
Ann: “First of all, that is the worst pick-up line I’ve ever heard.”
Which, I have to admit, is funny. Unfortunately, she tried to keep the joke going, which of course killed it, and never actually answered the question. Way to go.
There were a couple other very good questions, about womens’ right to vote, among other things, but I can’t remember them right now. I’ll post them if I do.
In conclusion, Ann Coulter can blow me.