Ann may refer to:

Places:

• Ann, Burma
• Ann, California
• Ann (crater), on the Moon
• Ånn in Sweden

People:

• Anne, alternatively spelled Ann, a female given name
• T. K. Ann, Hong Kong industrialist and sinologist
• Julia Ann, adult film actress
• Lisa Ann, adult film actress

Other uses:

• "Miss Ann," a song by Little Richard from the album Here's Little Richard

See also[link]

• ANN (disambiguation)
• Anna (given name)

This disambiguation page lists articles associated with the same title. If an internal link led you here, you may wish to change the link to point directly to the intended article.

Ann Romney
Ann Romney after speaking at CPAC in 2011
First Lady of Massachusetts
In office January 3, 2003 – January 4, 2007
Preceded by	Chuck Hunt (acting)
Succeeded by	Diane Patrick
Personal details
Born	Ann Lois Davies (1949-04-16) April 16, 1949 (age 63)[1]
Political party	Republican
Spouse(s)	Mitt Romney (m. 1969) «start: (1969)»"Marriage: Mitt Romney to Ann Romney" Location: (linkback:http://en-wiki.pop.wn.com/index.php/Ann_Romney)
Children	Tagg (b. 1970) Matt (b. 1971) Josh (b. 1975) Ben (b. 1978) Craig (b. 1981)
Residence	Belmont, Massachusetts Wolfeboro, New Hampshire La Jolla, San Diego, California
Alma mater	Brigham Young University (B.A.)
Occupation	Homemaker
Religion	The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormon)

Ann Lois Romney (née Davies; born April 16, 1949) is the wife of American businessman and Republican Party politician Mitt Romney. From 2003 to 2007 she was First Lady of Massachusetts.

She was raised in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan, and attended the private Kingswood School there, where she dated Mitt Romney. She converted to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in 1966. She attended Brigham Young University (BYU) and married Mitt Romney in 1969. Ann Romney completed credits towards her undergraduate degree through Harvard Extension School, and in 1975 she received a Bachelor of Arts in French from BYU.

As First Lady of Massachusetts, she served as the governor's liaison for federal faith-based initiatives. She was involved in a number of children's charities, including Operation Kids, and was an active participant in her husband's 2008 presidential run, where she became the most visible of all the Republican candidates' wives in campaigning. She has continued campaigning on her husband's behalf during his 2012 presidential bid.

Ann was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis in 1998 and has credited a mixture of mainstream and alternative treatments with giving her a lifestyle mostly without limitations. In one of those activities, equestrianism, she has consequently received recognition in dressage as an adult amateur at the national level and competed professionally in Grand Prix as well. In 2008, she was also diagnosed with ductal carcinoma in situ, a non-invasive type of breast cancer. She underwent a lumpectomy in December of the same year and has since been cancer-free.

She and husband Mitt have five children, all boys, born between 1970 and 1981.

Early life[link]

Born Ann Lois Davies,^[2] she was raised in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan,^[3] by parents Edward R. Davies and Lois Davies.^[4] Her father, originally from Caerau near Bridgend, Wales,^[5] was a self-made businessman who became president of Jered Industries, a maker of heavy machinery for marine use;^[4][6] he also was mayor of Bloomfield Hills.^[3] Raised in the Welsh Congregationalists, he had become strongly opposed to all organized religion,^[6] although on her request the family very occasionally attended church, and she nominally identified as an Episcopalian.^[7][8] At times she helped out at her father's plant.^[9]

Ann Davies knew of Mitt Romney since elementary school.^[8] She went to the private Kingswood School in Bloomfield Hills,^[10] which was the sister school to the all-boys Cranbrook School that he attended.^[10] The two were re-introduced and began dating in March 1965;^[11] they informally agreed to marriage after his senior prom in June 1965.^[6][11]

While he was attending Stanford University for a year and then was away starting two-and-a-half years of Mormon missionary duty in France,^[11] she decided on her own^[3] to convert to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints during 1966.^[6][12] In doing so she accepted the guidance of Mitt's father George Romney, the Governor of Michigan.^[6] (Within a year her two brothers followed her in converting.^[6]) She graduated from high school in 1967 and began attending Brigham Young University (BYU).^[3] She also spent a semester at the University of Grenoble in France during her freshman year.^[4] The Mormon missionary rules allowed her only two brief visits with Mitt and very rare telephone calls with him.^[13] While at BYU, she dated future business academic Kim S. Cameron.^[13][14] She sent Mitt a "Dear John letter", while Mitt sent letters back imploring her to wait for him.^[14]

Marriage and children[link]

Immediately after Romney's return from France in December 1968, the pair reconnected and agreed to get married as soon as possible.^[13] Ann Davies and Mitt Romney were married by a church elder in a civil ceremony on March 21, 1969, at her Bloomfield Hills home, with a reception afterward at a local country club.^[4][13] Among the 250 guests was U.S. House Minority Leader Gerald Ford, and President Richard Nixon sent congratulations.^[15] The following day the couple flew to Utah for a wedding ceremony inside the Salt Lake Temple; her parents could not attend since they were non-Mormons, but were present at a subsequent wedding breakfast held for them across the street.^[4][16]

The couple's first son was born in 1970^[13] while both were undergraduates at BYU^[17] (which Mitt had transferred to based upon her request).^[14] After he graduated, the couple moved to Boston so that he could attend Harvard Business School and Harvard Law School. Slowed down by parenthood, she later finished her undergraduate work by gaining a semester and half's worth of credits via taking night courses at Harvard University Extension School.^[17] Ann Romney received a Bachelor of Arts degree with a concentration in French language from BYU in 1975.^[1][18]

A stay-at-home mother,^[19] Romney raised the family's five boys (born between 1970 and 1981)^[13] and taught early morning seminary to them and other children^[19] while her husband pursued his career, first in business, then in politics.^[20] She wanted to go on for a master's degree, perhaps in art history, but first taking care of her children, and later her health issues, forestalled that.^[17] She was active in the local PTA and with the League of Women Voters.^[21] With a friend, she held local cooking classes.^[9]

Her first prolonged public exposure came during her husband's eventually losing effort in the 1994 U.S. Senate election in Massachusetts,^[19] during which she campaigned for him on a nightly basis.^[15] She was seen as superficial and too deferential to him^[19] and some columnists labelled her a "Stepford wife".^[22] Late in that campaign, she gave a long interview to The Boston Globe.^[15] Her statement in it that she and her husband had never had a serious argument during their married years^[15] came in for ridicule,^[23] and her portrayal of the couple's student years as financially impoverished, while they lived off of sales of George Romney's stock and loans, made her seem privileged and naïve and brought a harsh public reaction.^[24][25] Boston University political science professor later said, "She definitely hurt him in that race."^[19] Ann Romney later termed the experience "a real education".^[19]

Multiple sclerosis[link]

During 1997, Ann Romney began experiencing severe numbness, fatigue, and other symptoms,^[13] and just before Thanksgiving in 1998, she was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis.^[17][20] Mitt Romney described watching her fail a series of neurological tests as the worst day of his life.^[13] He later said: "I couldn't operate without Ann. We're a partnership. We've always been a partnership so her being healthy and our being able to be together is essential."^[17] She initially experienced a period of severe difficulty with the disease,^[1] and later said: "I was very sick in 1998 when I was diagnosed. I was pretty desperate, pretty frightened and very, very sick. It was tough at the beginning, just to think, this is how I'm going to feel for the rest of my life."^[26]

Since then, she credits a mixture of mainstream and alternative treatments with giving her a lifestyle mostly without limitations.^[1] She initially used corticosteroids, including intravenously, and credited them with helping stop the progression of the disease.^[26] She then dropped them and other medications due to counterproductive side effects.^[19] She has partaken of reflexology, acupuncture, and craniosacral therapy, and has said, "There is huge merit in both Eastern and Western medicine, and I've taken a little bit from both."^[26] She is a board member for the New England chapter of the National Multiple Sclerosis Society.^[18]

Equestrianism[link]

Romney is an avid equestrian, crediting her renewed involvement in it while in Park City, Utah, (where the couple had built a vacation home and where they lived when he was in charge of the 2002 Winter Olympic Games) for much of her recovery after her multiple sclerosis diagnosis^[20][27] and for her continued ability to deal with the disease.^[19] She has said that riding "saved my life", explaining that, "I was losing most of the function of my right side. And I decided I needed to go back and do what I loved before I couldn't do it anymore."^[28] At first she could barely stay on a horse without getting tired,^[29] but gradually the muscle control required for riding proved directly beneficial, and psychologically, "Riding exhilarated me; it gave me a joy and a purpose. When I was so fatigued that I couldn't move, the excitement of going to the barn and getting my foot in the stirrup would make me crawl out of bed."^[28] As a result, she said, "My desire to ride was, and is, so strong that I kept getting healthier and healthier."^[24]

She has received recognition in dressage as an adult amateur at the national level,^[19] including earning her 2006 Gold Medal^[30][28] and 2005 Silver Medal at the Grand Prix level from the United States Dressage Federation.^[18][28] She also sometimes competes in professional dressage events and has broken the 60% level at Grand Prix. Romney works with California trainer Jan Ebeling,^[31] who schools her and her horses in dressage and works with her importing new stock from Europe.^[29] The pair qualified for the Pan-Am games in 2004. The Romneys have helped fund Ebeling's attempt to qualify for equestrian competition at the 2012 Summer Olympics.^[29] By 2011, the horses she owned and kept at Eberling's Moorpark, California, stables, which she is a partner in,^[28] were valued at more than $250,000.^[32]

Charitable work[link]

Ann Romney has been involved in a number of children's charities, including having been a director of the inner city-oriented Best Friends, which seeks to assist inner-city adolescent girls.^[22][9] She advocated a celibacy-based approach to the prevention of teen pregnancy.^[24] She worked extensively with the Ten Point Coalition in Boston and with other groups that promoted better safety and opportunities for urban youths.^[33]

She was an honorary board member of Families First, a parent education program in Cambridge, Massachusetts.^[34] She was a volunteer instructor of middle-school girls at the multicultural Mother Caroline Academy in Boston.^[22][9]

She has said her interest in helping underprivileged children dates back to when she and her five boys saw a vehicle carrying a group of boys to a Massachusetts Department of Youth Services detention center.^[35] She began volunteering for the United Way of Massachusetts Bay soon after that,^[35] and by 2002 was serving as one of that organization's board members.^[34] She was on the Faith in Action Committee for the United Way, working with local religious establishments to assist at-risk children^[22] and helping to found United Way Faith and Action.^[33] Earlier, by 1996, she was a member of the Massachusetts Advisory Board of Stand for Children.^[36]

During the 2002 Winter Olympics effort, she co-chaired the Olympic Aid charity, whichs provides athletic activities and programs for children in war-torn regions.^[34][24]

Ann Romney was given the 2006 Lifetime Achievement Award from Salt Lake City-based Operation Kids.^[37]

First Lady of Massachusetts[link]

Romney joined in her husband's campaign in the 2002 Massachusetts gubernatorial election from the start, and nominated him at the state party convention.^[25] A commercial entitled "Mitt and Ann", highlighting their romance and marriage, began the campaign's television advertising.^[22][24] She avoided media interviews like the one that plagued her in 1994, but was a force behind the scenes during the eventually successful campaign.^[22]

In January 2003, following his election, Romney became First Lady of Massachusetts, a position she held through January 2007. In that role, she generally kept a low public profile,^[38] with by her husband's initial indications no public role in administration or its policies.^[22] In 2006, The Boston Globe characterized her as "largely invisible" within the state (although by then she was becoming more visible outside the state, due to national appearances in connection with her husband's possible presidential campaign).^[38]

While Massachusetts First Lady, she was active in teenage pregnancy prevention efforts.^[39] In 2004, she said she was in favor of stem cell research as long as it was done "morally and ethically".^[26] One of her rare public appearances at the Massachusetts State House came in 2004 when she lobbied the legislature to raise awareness about multiple sclerosis.^[40]

In 2005, the governor appointed his wife as head of a new special office whose purpose was to help the state's faith-based groups gain more federal monies in association with the White House Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives.^[35][41] This came after the state had seen its share of faith-based grants decline over the preceding three years.^[42] In this unpaid Governor's Liaison position,^[18][41] Ann Romney was termed a "dynamo" by Jim Towey, director of the White House office.^[42]

At the conclusion of her time as Massachusetts First Lady, Romney said that the role "doesn't need to change your life at all. I think it's an opportunity for service and an opportunity to see people of all walks of life from across the Commonwealth...It's an enriching part of your life [and one will] treasure it forever."^[43] Her health was still a primary factor in family decisions about her husband's career, and Mitt said in 2005 that if her multiple sclerosis flared up, "I wouldn't be involved in politics anymore; that would be over." ^[44]

Role in 2008 presidential campaign[link]

Ann Romney with her husband, at a campaign stop in Altoona, Iowa on December 29, 2007.

Ann Romney was an active participant in her husband's 2008 presidential campaign.^[45] One past issue that arose involving her was her donation of $150 to Planned Parenthood in 1994,^[46] though she now considers herself pro-life^[47]. By late 2007, she had become an integral part of his campaign, and was doing more trips and appearances on her own, despite the risk that added stress would aggravate her condition.^[48]

Her political message was often mixed with discussions of her family, her recipes, or managing her affliction.^[19][48] Romney's television advertisements in the early primary states prominently featured her^[49] and by the close of 2007, she was the most visible of all the Republican candidates' wives in campaigning.^[19] Regarding having to witness criticism of her husband, she later acknowledged that she sometimes wanted to "come out of my seat and clock somebody [but] you learn to just take a deep breath."^[50] By the time he ended his campaign in February 2008, she had become openly distasteful of the whole process.^[23]

Between campaigns[link]

In late 2008, Romney was diagnosed with mammary ductal carcinoma in situ, a non-invasive type of breast cancer, and had the lump removed via lumpectomy;^[51] she subsequently underwent radiation therapy.^[50] Her prognosis from this condition was excellent,^[51] and she later reflected that "I was really lucky" to have caught it so early.^[50] President-elect Barack Obama was among the well-wishers who called her.^[52] She has been cancer-free since.

In June 2009, due to her husband's request, Ann Romney became the first spouse to be included in the official Massachusetts State House gubernatorial portrait.^[53]

For many years the couple's primary residence was a house in Belmont, Massachusetts,^[18] but this and the Utah home were sold in 2009. They reside in Wolfeboro, New Hampshire, along Lake Winnipesaukee, and at an oceanfront home in La Jolla, San Diego, California, that they had bought the year before.^[54][55][56] Both locations were near some of the Romneys' grandchildren,^[55] who by 2012 numbered sixteen,^[57] and the La Jolla location is near where she rides horses and is well-situated for her multiple sclerosis therapies and for recovering from her cancer treatments.^[51][55][58] They also bought a smaller condominium in Belmont during 2010.^[59]

Role in 2012 presidential campaign[link]

Regarding another possible run for office by her husband in the 2012 presidential election, Romney said in March 2010 that this time the process would hold no surprises, and that if he decided in favor of doing it, "I’m up to saying, go storm the castle, sweetie."^[60] Although still not liking the political process, which she referred to as "a very difficult game", she urged her husband to run again.^[23]

Once the campaign began, she stumped for her husband in early primary states and criticized the record and ideological direction of the Obama administration.^[61] As part of trying to lighten her husband's image, she sometimes participated in comic setup routines with him.^[62] Romney said that if she became First Lady of the United States, she would seek to work with at-risk youths and on behalf of those with multiple sclerosis.^[63][23] She expressed admiration for three former first ladies, Mamie Eisenhower, Nancy Reagan, and Barbara Bush.^[23]

By December 2011, Romney assumed an even more prominent role in the campaign, as she tried to offer a more rounded and compelling portrait of her husband while he fell behind Newt Gingrich for a stretch in polls.^[23][64] Her emphasis on their 42 years of marriage and his steadfastness following the onset of her disease offered an implicit but clear contrast with Gingrich's own personal history.^[23][64] During the up-and-down campaign she became known as the "Mitt-stabilizer" due to the calming effect she had on her husband, and began appearing with him more often during February 2012 as he dueled with Rick Santorum.^[65] Regarding the couple's wealth, she alluded to her health problems and said, "Look, I don't even consider myself wealthy, which is an interesting thing, it can be here today and gone tomorrow. And how I measure riches is by the friends I have and the loved ones that I have and the people that I care about in my life."^[66]

In April 2012, Ann Romney was spotlighted when Democratic commentator Hilary Rosen declared Romney to be unfit to address women's economic issues because as a stay-at-home mother, she had "never worked a day in her life".^[67] In response, Ann Romney issued her first tweet, saying "I made a choice to stay home and raise five boys. Believe me, it was hard work."^[68] The following day Rosen said, "I apologize to Ann Romney and anyone else who was offended."^[67]

Awards and honors[link]

In 2005, Ann Romney received an honorary degree from Mount Ida College.^[69] In 2006, she received the MS Society Inspiration Award from the Central New England Chapter of the National Multiple Sclerosis Society.^[70][12] In May 2008, she shared with her husband the Canterbury Medal from The Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, for "refus[ing] to compromise their principles and faith" during that year's presidential campaign.^[71]

See also[link]

• Republican Party presidential primaries, 2012

References[link]

External links[link]

• Video about Ann and her role in husband Mitt's 2012 presidential campaign, by CNN

v t e Mitt Romney Politics Governor of Massachusetts · Massachusetts health care reform · 1994 senatorial election · 2002 gubernatorial election · 2008 presidential campaign · 2012 presidential campaign · Political positions · Public image · Electoral history Olympics 2002 Winter Olympics (Salt Lake Organizing Committee) Business Bain & Company · Bain Capital Books Turnaround: Crisis, Leadership, and the Olympic Games · No Apology: The Case for American Greatness Family Family tree · George W. Romney (father) · Lenore Romney (mother) · Ann Romney (spouse) · G. Scott Romney (brother)

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Ann Coulter
Coulter at the 2012 Time 100
Born	Ann Hart Coulter (1961-12-08) December 8, 1961 (age 50) New York City, U.S.
Alma mater	Cornell University (B.A.) University of Michigan Law School (J.D.)
Occupation	Author, columnist, political commentator
Years active	1996–present
Website
anncoulter.com

Ann Hart Coulter (born December 8, 1961) is an American lawyer,^[1] conservative social and political commentator, author, and syndicated columnist. She frequently appears on television, radio, and as a speaker at public events and private events. Well-known for her conservative political opinions and the controversial ways in which she presents and defends them, Coulter has described herself as a polemicist who likes to "stir up the pot" and does not "pretend to be impartial or balanced, as broadcasters do."^[2]

Early life[link]

Ann Hart Coulter was born in New York City on December 8, 1961, to Nell Husbands (née Martin; a native of Paducah, Kentucky) and John Vincent Coulter (a native of Albany, New York). The family later moved to New Canaan, Connecticut, where Coulter and her two older brothers, James and John, were raised.^[3] She graduated from New Canaan High School in 1980. Coulter's age was disputed in 2002 while she was arguing that she was not yet 40, yet Washington Post columnist Lloyd Grove cited that she provided a birthdate of December 8, 1961, when registering to vote in New Canaan, Connecticut prior to the 1980 Presidential election. Meanwhile, a driver's license issued several years later allegedly listed her birthdate as December 8, 1963. Coulter will not confirm either date, citing privacy concerns.^[4]

While attending Cornell University, Coulter helped found The Cornell Review,^[5] and was a member of the Delta Gamma national women's fraternity.^[6] She graduated cum laude from Cornell in 1984 with a B.A. in history, and received her J.D. from the University of Michigan Law School in 1988, where she achieved membership in the Order of the Coif and was an editor of the Michigan Law Review.^[7] At Michigan, Coulter was president of the local chapter of the Federalist Society and was trained at the National Journalism Center.^[8]

Career[link]

After law school, Coulter served as a law clerk, in Kansas City, for Pasco Bowman II of the United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit.^[9] After a short time working in New York City in private practice, where she specialized in corporate law, Coulter left to work for the United States Senate Judiciary Committee after the Republican Party took control of Congress in 1994. She handled crime and immigration issues for Senator Spencer Abraham of Michigan and helped craft legislation designed to expedite the deportation of aliens convicted of felonies.^[10] She later became a litigator with the Center for Individual Rights.^[11]

In 1999 and 2000, Coulter considered running for Congress in Connecticut on the Libertarian Party ticket to serve as a spoiler in order to throw the seat to the Democratic candidate and see that Republican Congressman Christopher Shays failed to gain re-election, as a punishment for Shays' vote against Clinton's impeachment. The leadership of the Libertarian Party of Connecticut, after meeting with Coulter, declined to endorse her. As a result, her self-described "total sham, media-intensive, third-party Jesse Ventura campaign" did not take place.^[12][13]

Coulter's career is highlighted by the publication of eight books, as well as the weekly syndicated newspaper column that she publishes. She is particularly known for her polemical style,^[14] who likes to "stir up the pot" and, unlike "broadcasters," does not "pretend to be impartial or balanced."^[15] She has been compared to Clare Boothe Luce, one of her idols, for her satirical style.^[16] She also makes numerous public appearances, speaking on television and radio talk shows, as well as on college campuses, receiving both praise and protest. In 2010, she made an estimated $500,000 on the speaking circuit, giving speeches on topics of modern conservatism, gay marriage, and what she perceives as liberal hypocrisy to adoring right-leaning audiences.^[17] During one appearance at the University of Arizona, a pie was thrown at her.^[18][19][20] Coulter has, on occasion, responded with insulting remarks towards hecklers and protestors who attend her speeches.^[21][22]

Books[link]

Ann Coulter at the 2004 Republican National Convention

Coulter is the author of eight books, all of which have appeared on New York Times Best Seller list, with a combined 3 million copies sold, as of May 2009.^[23]

Coulter's first book, High Crimes and Misdemeanors: The Case Against Bill Clinton, was published by Regnery Publishing in 1998. The book details Coulter's case for the impeachment of President Bill Clinton.

Her second book, Slander: Liberal Lies About the American Right, published by Crown Forum in 2002, became number one on The New York Times non-fiction best seller list.^[24] In Slander, Coulter argues that President George W. Bush was given unfair negative media coverage. The factual accuracy of Slander was called into question by then-comedian and author, and now Democratic U.S. Senator from Minnesota, Al Franken; he also accused her of citing passages out of context.^[25] Others investigated these charges, and also raised questions about the book's accuracy and presentation of facts.^[26][27][28] Coulter responded to criticisms in a column called "Answering My Critics."^[29]

In her third book, Treason: Liberal Treachery from the Cold War to the War on Terrorism, also published by Crown Forum, she reexamines the 60-year history of the Cold War—including the career of Senator Joseph McCarthy, the Whittaker Chambers–Alger Hiss affair, and Ronald Reagan’s challenge to Mikhail Gorbachev to "tear down this wall"—and argues that liberals were wrong in their Cold War political analyses and policy decisions, and that McCarthy was correct about Soviet agents working for the U.S. government. She also argues that the correct identification of Annie Lee Moss, among others, as communists was misreported by the liberal media. Treason was published in 2003, and spent 13 weeks on the Best Seller list.^[30]

Crown Forum published a collection of Coulter's columns in 2004 as her fourth book, How to Talk to a Liberal (If You Must): The World According to Ann Coulter.

Coulter's fifth book, published by Crown Forum in 2006, is Godless: The Church of Liberalism. In it, she argues, first, that liberalism rejects the idea of God and reviles people of faith, and second, that it bears all the attributes of a religion itself. Godless debuted at number one on The New York Times Best Seller list.^[31]

Coulter published If Democrats Had Any Brains, They'd Be Republicans, in October 2007, and another, Guilty: Liberal "Victims" and Their Assault on America, on January 6, 2009.

Her most recent book, Demonic: How the Liberal Mob Is Endangering America, argues that liberals have mob-like characteristics. The book was released on June 7, 2011.

Columns[link]

In the late 1990s, Coulter's weekly (biweekly from 1999–2000) syndicated column for Universal Press Syndicate began appearing. Her column is featured on six conservative websites: Human Events Online, WorldNetDaily, Townhall.com, FrontPageMag, Jewish World Review and her own website. Her syndicator says, "Ann's client newspapers stick with her because she has a loyal fan base of conservative readers who look forward to reading her columns in their local newspapers."^[32]

In 1999, Coulter worked as a regular columnist for George magazine.^[12][33] Coulter also wrote exclusive weekly columns between 1998 and 2003 and with occasional columns thereafter for the conservative magazine Human Events. In her columns for the magazine, she discusses judicial rulings, Constitutional issues, and legal matters affecting Congress and the executive branch.

In 2001, as a contributing editor and syndicated columnist for National Review Online (NRO), Coulter was asked by editors to make changes to a piece written after the September 11 attacks. On the national television show Politically Incorrect, Coulter accused NRO of censorship and said that she was paid $5 per article. NRO dropped her column and terminated her editorship. Jonah Goldberg, editor-at-large of NRO, said, "We did not 'fire' Ann for what she wrote... we ended the relationship because she behaved with a total lack of professionalism, friendship, and loyalty [concerning the editing disagreement]."^[34]

Coulter contracted with USA Today to cover the 2004 Democratic National Convention. She wrote one article that began, "Here at the Spawn of Satan convention in Boston..." and referred to some unspecified female attendees as "corn-fed, no make-up, natural fiber, no-bra needing, sandal-wearing, hirsute, somewhat fragrant hippie chick pie wagons." The newspaper declined to print the article citing an editing dispute over "basic weaknesses in clarity and readability that we found unacceptable." An explanatory article by the paper went on to say "Coulter told the online edition of Editor & Publisher magazine that 'USA Today doesn't like my "tone", humor, sarcasm, etc., which raises the intriguing question of why they hired me to write for them.'" USA Today replaced Coulter with Jonah Goldberg, and Coulter published it instead on her website.^[35][36][37]

In August 2005, the Arizona Daily Star dropped Coulter's syndicated column citing reader complaints that "Many readers find her shrill, bombastic and mean-spirited. And those are the words used by readers who identified themselves as conservatives."^[38]

In July 2006, some newspapers replaced Coulter's column with those of other conservative columnists following the publication of her fourth book, Godless: The Church of Liberalism.^[39] After the Augusta Chronicle dropped her column, newspaper editor Michael Ryan explained that "it came to the point where she was the issue rather than what she was writing about."^[40] Ryan also stated that "Pulling Ann Coulter's column hurts; she's one of the clearest thinkers around."

She has criticized former president George W. Bush's immigration proposals, saying they led to "amnesty". In one column, she claims that the current immigration system is set up to purposely reduce the percentage of whites in the population. In it, she said:^[41]

In 1960, whites were 90 percent of the country. The Census Bureau recently estimated that whites already account for less than two-thirds of the population and will be a minority by 2050. Other estimates put that day much sooner. One may assume the new majority will not be such compassionate overlords as the white majority has been. If this sort of drastic change were legally imposed on any group other than white Americans, it would be called genocide. Yet whites are called racists merely for mentioning the fact that current immigration law is intentionally designed to reduce their percentage in the population.

Overall, Coulter's columns are highly critical of liberals and Democrats. In one, she wrote:^[42]

This year's Democratic plan for the future is another inane sound bite designed to trick American voters into trusting them with national security.

To wit, they're claiming there is no connection between the war on terror and the war in Iraq, and while they're all for the war against terror—absolutely in favor of that war—they are adamantly opposed to the Iraq war. You know, the war where the U.S. military is killing thousands upon thousands of terrorists (described in the media as "Iraqi civilians", even if they are from Jordan, like the now-dead leader of al-Qaida in Iraq, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi). That war.

Television and radio[link]

Ann Coulter at The Morning Show with Mike and Juliet in 2007.

Coulter made her first national media appearance in 1996 after she was hired by the then-fledgling network MSNBC as a legal correspondent. She was dismissed from the network at least twice. First, in February 1997, after she insulted the late Pamela Harriman (U.S. Ambassador to France), as the network was covering her memorial service. They missed her jousting and quickly rehired her, only to fire her eight months later after she tangled with a disabled Vietnam veteran on the air. Robert Muller, co-founder of the International Campaign to Ban Landmines, asserted that, "in 90% of the cases that U.S. soldiers got blown up [in Vietnam]—Ann, are you listening—they were our own mines." (Muller was misquoting a 1969 Pentagon report that found that 90% of the components used in enemy mines came from U.S. duds and refuse). Coulter, who found Muller's statement laughable, averted her eyes and responded sarcastically, "No wonder you guys lost." It became an infamous—and oft-misreported—Coulter moment. The Washington Post and others turned the line into a more personal attack: "People like you caused us to lose that war." But her troubles with MSNBC only freed her to appear on CNN and Fox News, whose producers were often calling.^[43]

Howard Kurtz of the Washington Post made a point to respond to the Time article to explain that his widely quoted reporting of Coulter's reply to the veteran in an article he wrote had its origin in Coulter's own later recollection of the incident. Describing his previous story, Kurtz added, "I did note that, according to Coulter, the vet was appearing by satellite, and she didn't know he was disabled."^[44]

In an interview with Bob McKeown on the January 26, 2005, edition of The Fifth Estate, Coulter came under criticism for her statement: "Canada used to be ... one of our most ... most loyal friends, and vice versa. I mean, Canada sent troops to Vietnam. Was Vietnam less containable and more of a threat than Saddam Hussein?" McKeown contradicted her with, "No, actually Canada did not send troops to Vietnam."^[45] On the February 18, 2005, edition of Washington Journal, Coulter justified her statement by referring to the thousands of Canadians who served in the American armed forces during the Vietnam era, either because they volunteered or because they were living in the USA during the war years and got drafted. She said, "The Canadian Government didn't send troops ... but ... they came and fought with the Americans. So I was wrong. It turns out there were 10,000 Americans who happened to be born in Canada." (Between 5,000 and 20,000 Canadians fought in Vietnam itself, including approximately 80 who were killed.).^[46] John Cloud of Time, writing about the incident a few months later, said "Canada [sent] noncombat troops to Indochina in the 1950s and again to Vietnam in 1972".^[43]

In 2005, Coulter appeared as one of a three-person judging panel in The Greatest American, a four-part interactive television program for the Discovery Channel hosted by Matt Lauer. Starting with 100 nominees, each week, interactive viewer voting eliminated candidates. She voted for George Washington for the title of Greatest American ever.

Coulter has also made frequent guest appearances on many television and radio talk shows, including American Morning, The Fifth Estate, Glenn Beck Program, The Mike Gallagher Show, The O'Reilly Factor, Real Time with Bill Maher, Red Eye w/ Greg Gutfeld, The Rush Limbaugh Show, The Sean Hannity Show, The Today Show, Lou Dobbs Tonight, Fox and Friends, The Laura Ingraham Show, The View and HARDtalk.

Films[link]

In 2004, Coulter appeared in three films. The first was Feeding the Beast, a made-for-television documentary on the "24-Hour News Revolution".^[47] The other two films were FahrenHYPE 9/11, a direct to video documentary intended to rebut Michael Moore's Fahrenheit 911, and Is It True What They Say About Ann?, a documentary on Coulter containing clips of interviews and speeches.^[48]

Personal life[link]

Coulter has been engaged several times, but never married.^[21] She has dated Spin founder and publisher Bob Guccione, Jr.,^[12] and conservative writer Dinesh D'Souza.^[49] In October 2007, she began dating Andrew Stein, the former president of the New York City Council, a liberal Democrat. When asked about the relationship, Stein told the paper, "She's attacked a lot of my friends, but what can I say, opposites attract!"^[50] On January 7, 2008, however, Stein told the New York Post that the relationship was over, citing irreconcilable differences.^[51]

Coulter owns a condominium in Manhattan and a house, bought in 2005, in Palm Beach, Florida. She votes in Palm Beach and is not registered to do so in New York.^[52] She is a fan of several jam bands, such as the Grateful Dead, the Dave Matthews Band, and Phish.^[53][54] Some of her favorite books include The Bible, Wuthering Heights, Anna Karenina, true crime stories about serial killers, and anything by Dave Barry.^[55]

Religious views[link]

Coulter says that she holds Christian beliefs, but has not declared her membership in any particular denomination – she has mentioned that her father was Catholic while her mother was not.^[56] At one public lecture she said, "I don't care about anything else: Christ died for my sins and nothing else matters."^[57] She summarized her view of Christianity in a 2004 column, saying: "Jesus' distinctive message was: People are sinful and need to be redeemed, and this is your lucky day, because I'm here to redeem you even though you don't deserve it, and I have to get the crap kicked out of me to do it." She then mocked "the message of Jesus ... according to liberals," summarizing it as "...something along the lines of 'be nice to people'," which, in turn, she said "is, in fact, one of the incidental tenets of Christianity".^[58]

Confronting some critics' views that her content and style of writing is un-Christian,^[59][60] Coulter stated that, "I'm a Christian first and a mean-spirited, bigoted conservative second, and don't you ever forget it."^[61] She also said, "Christianity fuels everything I write. Being a Christian means that I am called upon to do battle against lies, injustice, cruelty, hypocrisy—you know, all the virtues in the church of liberalism."^[62] In Godless: The Church of Liberalism, Coulter characterized the theory of evolution as bogus science, and contrasted her beliefs to what she called the left's "obsession with Darwinism and the Darwinian view of the world, which replaces sanctification of life with sanctification of sex and death."^[63]

Coulter was accused of anti-semitism in an October 8, 2007, interview with Donny Deutsch on The Big Idea. During the interview, Coulter stated that the United States is a Christian nation and said that she wants, "Jews to be perfected, as they say", implying that she believes Christians to be perfected Jews.^[64] Deutsch, a practicing Jew, implied that this was an anti-semitic remark, but Coulter said she didn't consider it to be a hateful comment.^[65] Three days after the interview, Deutsch noted that when he challenged her comments, Coulter appeared "to back off" and "seemed a little upset", adding, "I think she got frightened that maybe she had crossed a line, that this was maybe a faux pas of great proportions."^[66] In response to Coulter's comments on the show, the Anti-Defamation League and American Jewish Committee condemned her comments on the show, and the National Jewish Democratic Council asked media outlets to stop inviting Coulter as a guest commentator.^[67] Talk show host Dennis Prager, while disagreeing with her comments, said that they were not "anti-semitic", noting, "There is nothing in what Ann Coulter said to a Jewish interviewer on CNBC that indicates she hates Jews or wishes them ill, or does damage to the Jewish people or the Jewish state. And if none of those criteria is present, how can someone be labeled anti-Semitic?"^[68] Conservative activist David Horowitz responded, "If you don't accompany this belief by burning Jews who refuse to become perfected at the stake why would any Jew have a problem? Why do some Jews think that Christians should not really believe what they believe while it's okay for Jews to really believe they are God's Chosen People? I don't get it."^[69]

Political activities and commentary[link]

Ann Coulter has described herself as a "polemicist" who likes to "stir up the pot" and doesn't "pretend to be impartial or balanced, as broadcasters do".^[2] While her political activities in the past have included advising a plaintiff suing President Bill Clinton as well as considering a run for Congress, she mostly serves as a political pundit, sometimes starting controversy, ranging from rowdy uprisings at some of the colleges where she speaks to protracted discussions in the media. Time magazine's John Cloud once observed that Coulter, "likes to shock reporters by wondering aloud whether America might be better off if women lost the right to vote."^[43] This was in reference to a statement that she made: "It would be a much better country if women did not vote. That is simply a fact. In fact, in every presidential election since 1950—except Goldwater in '64—the Republican would have won, if only the men had voted."^[70] Similarly, in an October 2007 interview with the New York Observer, Coulter said:^[71]

Paula Jones – Bill Clinton case[link]

Coulter first became a public figure shortly before becoming an unpaid legal adviser for the attorneys representing Paula Jones in her sexual harassment suit against President Bill Clinton. Coulter's friend George Conway had been asked to assist Jones' attorneys, and shortly afterward Coulter, who wrote a column about the Paula Jones case for Human Events, was also asked to help; she began writing legal briefs for the case.

Coulter later stated that she would come to mistrust the motives of Jones' head lawyer, Joseph Cammaratta, who by August or September 1997 was advising Jones that her case was weak and to settle, if a favorable settlement could be negotiated.^[10][72] From the onset, Jones had sought an apology from Clinton at least as eagerly as she sought a settlement.^[73] However, in a later interview Coulter recounted that she herself had believed that the case was strong, that Jones was telling the truth, that Clinton should be held publicly accountable for his misconduct, and that a settlement would give the impression that Jones was merely interested in extorting money from the President.^[10]

David Daley, who wrote the interview piece for the Hartford Courant recounted what followed:

Coulter played one particularly key role in keeping the Jones case alive. In Newsweek reporter Michael Isikoff's new book Uncovering Clinton: A Reporter's Story, Coulter is unmasked as the one who leaked word of Clinton's "distinguishing characteristic"—his reportedly bent penis that Jones said she could recognize and describe—to the news media. Her hope was to foster mistrust between the Clinton and Jones camps and forestall a settlement...

I thought if I leaked the distinguishing characteristic it would show bad faith in negotiations. [Clinton lawyer] Bob Bennett would think Jones had leaked it. Cammaratta would know he himself hadn't leaked it and would get mad at Bennett. It might stall negotiations enough for me to get through to [Jones adviser] Susan Carpenter-McMillan to tell her that I thought settling would hurt Paula, that this would ruin her reputation, and that there were other lawyers working for her. Then 36 hours later, she returned my phone call.

I just wanted to help Paula. I really think Paula Jones is a hero. I don't think I could have taken the abuse she came under. She's this poor little country girl and she has the most powerful man she's ever met hitting on her sexually, then denying it and smearing her as president. And she never did anything tacky. It's not like she was going on TV or trying to make a buck out of it."^[10]

In his book, Isikoff also reported Coulter as saying: "We were terrified that Jones would settle. It was contrary to our purpose of bringing down the President."^[72] After the book came out, Coulter clarified her stated motives, saying: