The Ann Coulter Effect

First of all, what happened to Coulter? I haven't seen her making any idiotic statements for awhile now. Isn't this her time to shine?

But on to the heart of the matter: Something very strange is happening with the Republican Party. The latest example is this ad. What is basically happening is that the Republicans are taking the slogans and arguments of the Democrats and using them against the Democrats. Obama's main points are we need change and not more of the same which McCain will bring. Here the Republicans are saying we need change and not more of the same which Obama will bring. 

WTF?

They are so unoriginal that they cannot come up with their own message? What does that say to people about their ability to come up with new and innovative ways to help the economy or to think beyond 1950's Lex Luthor comics to figure out how to actually prevent terrorism rather than dehydrate me on a plane. 

But this ad really reminds me of the arguing tactics of one Ann Coutler. If you've never read any of her writings you should because 1) it is a great way to start learning about logical fallacies and 2) those times when she isn't butchering logic she has a very simple strategy - take the opposing argument against yourself and adopt it as your own. Don't change anything, just switch the names. If the Democrats are arguing that Republicans are trying to hurt endangered animals by messing with the endangered species list, the Coulter method would argue the Democrats are trying to hurt endangered animals by messing with the endangered species list. Now it seems clear that the Republican strategists for McCain are followers of Coulter's methodology. I really think they ought to reconsiders this approach, but I supposed if you only ever hear one side of a situation, such as only hearing Coulter and watching fox news (or only listening to Olberman and watching MSNBC), then you can get away with this. 

The Rational Moderate