EDITOR'S COLUMN: A chance to meet a boyhood idol

If you didn’t know it already, pundit extraordinaire Ann Coulter is coming to Alaska this weekend, playing a 7:30 show Saturday night at the Egan Civic Center in Anchorage.

I’d gotten an e-mail from the promoter of “An Evening with Ann Coulter”, asking me to e-mail questions to ask Ms. Coulter, whose latest book, “In Trump We Trust” is the 11th of her prolific career.

Silly me, I thought this e-mail was just a prelude to a phone interview — a procedural heat check on the kinds of questions the interviewee might expect. So I lobbed some generic questions back, only to see them returned two days later with pithy, but not terribly incisive, responses from Ms. Coulter.

Had I known that was the arrangement, I’d have sent more compelling questions.

I guess I got my signals crossed. Not the first time, nor likely the last. I guess I could still go back and request a phone interview, but for that I haven’t the time and you haven’t the interest.

I must say, though, that interviewing Coulter would be a bit like interviewing a boyhood idol. It’s not that I found her especially attractive, or her philosophies particularly salient; what made me fall for Ann Coulter was the way she never seemed to ever take a direct hit. Even as people would lambaste her with insults and drastic insinuations, she would always turn at a 45-degree angle, smile a smile that wasn’t condescending, wasn’t coquettish, but a smile that defended to the death all that’s funny because if something is funny it’s funny no matter who’s offended.

No one knew how to apply the 45-degree stance of an expert fencer and let the aggressor make a fool of himself, quite like Ann Coulter.

So I was kind of stunned a couple of weeks ago to see Coulter so unprepared for Comedy Central’s Roast of Rob Lowe, mainly because it seemed as though she didn’t know how these roasts work — that the ribbings are seldom targeted at the guest of honor, and usually wind up nailing fellow panelists, and that the panelists seldom write their own barbs. She, apparently, didn’t get that, and wound up paring down the material written for her so badly that disaster was inevitable.

It was maybe the first time I’d seen Ann Coulter unable to skillfully parry against such a thrust.

Anyway, maybe I’ll make it out to her show Saturday night. I hear there’s still plenty of tickets available.

So as neither of our lukewarm efforts go to waste, here’s my e-mail Q&A with Ann Coulter.

Enjoy.

1. What brings you to Alaska this weekend? And are there any Alaska-specific issues that especially interest you?

I’m coming to talk about my new book, IN TRUMP WE TRUST: E PLURIBUS AWESOME! and the most exciting presidential campaign in history. It’s a long way to go in the middle of a book tour, but I’ve always wanted to go to Alaska!

2. Is it strange or conflicting at all to travel around promoting a book that doubles as a push for a presidential candidate?

No, why would it be? That’s all anyone wants to talk about. It would be a bad time to put out a book on evolution or the Cold War. That would be strange.

3. What’s your take away from the Comedy Central Roast that’s drawn so much attention?

My name should have been on the marquee.

4. Apart from endorsing Trump, what is the main thing you hope readers take away from your book?

What has happened to our country, and will continue to happen at breakneck speed, with both parties working against the American people to benefit themselves and their rich donors. Whatever Trump’s peccadilloes, God raised him up to save the last Christian country on earth. I just hope there’s still time.

5. Why should people turn out for the show Saturday night?

It will be fun! And educational. But mostly fun.