Flashback Coulter: "If you don't run Chris Christie, Romney will be the nominee and we'll lose."

Bottom line on the race to date: Newt fared badly in Florida. This is not a Newt vs Romney battle yet. The battle is Newt vs. Rick for the conservative vote. I prefer either over Romney.

Coulter: "If you don't run Chris Christie, Romney will be the nominee and we'll lose."

Here is Mark Levin's brilliant takedown of Coulter jumping the shark on Romneycare -- listen here.

Right Scoop: Ann Coulter wrote an article called “Three Cheers for RomneyCare” where she defended Mitt Romney and RomneyCare. Mark Levin decided to read her article, fresh off the presses, on the air and go through it line by line, “reeducating” her on why RomneyCare is not only wrong, but a big problem for Mitt Romney and all of Massachusetts.

This is the rebuttal in its entirety. It runs 30 minutes:

As I said here last week on Coulter's break with reason:

OT but related: Coulter's tirade against Newt on Bull O'Reilly's show last night (watch it here) was not logical or coherent with her positions. Her hatred for Gingrich is visceral, abiding, and inexplicable rationally. There is something more here. Personal, I think.

Comparing Newt to Jesse Jackson is an outrageous charge. She is way off base, and O'Reilly ought to have a conservative pundit out as vocal in their support of Newt as she was in support of Romney.

She is ...unhinged, and I hate to use that word because it is used against me with such venom and dishonesty, but you can see she is beside herself. She is staking out positions she wouldn't support in other contexts, like covering for mainstream media reporters.

Romney is more conservative than any of the other candidates? Nuts. More than Santorum? More than Ron Paul, who is largely conservative except for nuts on foreign policy? Something else is happening here. They must know each other and hate each other for some reason we don't know.

George Scoville, The Dangerous Servant said:

Re: the value of mandates and their effects on the cost problem, I recommend this (more at the link): http://www.hoover.org/publications/defining-ideas/article/107101

• Second, insurance coverage mandates—laws that decree specific coverage requirements for all health insurance policies in any given state—have an extremely deleterious impact on the ultimate cost of an insurance policy, for obvious reasons. While mandates certainly make health insurance more comprehensive, they also make it more expensive. Government mandates requiring an insurance company to cover specific healthcare providers, benefits, or patient populations have grown from only a handful in the 1960s to 2,156 as of 2010. These coverage requirements can be responsible for more than 50 percent of health-insurance costs, depending on the state, and account for a significant part of the disparity of health-insurance prices between states. New federal mandates in the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) require insurers in the group or individual markets to provide coverage, without any cost sharing, for certain preventative health services, such as certain immunizations and screening tests.

But coverage mandates for individuals don't necessarily seek to curb the cost problem -- what people care most about. They seek to curb adverse selection (the "death spiral"), or as Jon put it, the creation of more free riders and indigents. Also, I recommend keeping up with the Hoover blog generally, particularly for regular updates from the indispensable Richard Epstein.

Alexis Shrugged opines:

While the concept of a mandate for everyone to pay their share of health costs instead of riding free may sound inoffensive at first, put into practice it's terrible!  What states mandate as an acceptable level of coverage ends up including whatever their pet interests are lobbying for.  They end up including free birth control, coverage of abortion, Viagra, sex change operations, boob jobs - you name it - as basic, essential, minimum requirements for health care that all have a "right" to.

Comments

[Charles Martel]

Instead of tearing at each other we should have only one goal, as rational individuals and as Americans, regardless of our political leaning: GET RID OF THE PRESENT ADMINISTRATION.

Will Santorum, Gingrich or Paul attract those who voted for Obama not to vote for Palin?

Please stop thinking as Republicans and think as Americans. We may like Palin, Santorum and Newt, but will any of them attract the votes we need to win?

The Republican party and all its members should be dedicated to educate any potential candidate as to the dangers the country will be facing this year, and to formulate a platform that will clearly define its unified position to defend the country.

Iran will probably have the bomb at the end of the year, which will coincide with the fall of the Saudi and Jordanian dynasties to the brotherhood, and to greet the arrival of the Mahdi.

Our internal problems have to be put on halt. We have to forget about gay marriage, abortion, etc. for now. Let's concentrate of having a sanitized DOJ, a strong military, fortified and sealed borders and any other measure that will ensure the survival of the West. Like with WWII, we are again the last front of resistance.

What's more important? To get one step ahead in our particular agendas, or to ensure that this land will remain free?

Think!

[Jamadagnii]

At this point I'm going to sit back and see if Santorum and Gingrich go at each other over who is the most conservative. Of course it's easier for them to gang up to knock out Romney.

Shouldn't Santorum be home for his wife and children at a time like this anyway instead of traveling all over the country if he wants to preach family values? And wasn't Newt colossally dishonest to be so sanctimonious about Clinton's adultery while Newt was cheating at the same time?

It isn't enough for Romney to say he'll repeal Obamacare, he'll have to explain what specifically is wrong with it and what he'd do to fix it. I suspect that Romney knows more about that than Newt or Santorum.

Regarding the health care issue and why insurance is worse than ever -- "What states mandate as an acceptable level of coverage ends up including whatever their pet interests are lobbying for." -- That's the result of the health care industry having its influence on politicians.

Instead of fixing the health care/insurance system (the goal isn't to get you healthy, but to get you paying*) they gerrymandered it. That's what politicians do best.

*Dylan Ratigan calls it "government corruption and corporate communism."

There are better ways. That article at the Hoover.org gives good ideas of how to make the system work better.

[eloivsdiablo]

Coulter's latest books are as follows:
Guilty: Liberal "Victims" and Their Assault on America.
How to Talk to a Liberal (If You Must): The World According to Ann Coulter.
Demonic: How the Liberal Mob Is Endangering America.
These books are hard hitting anti-leftist books that have diminished the opportunity for media appearances and virtually rendered her mute. What this all proves is Coulter is nothing more than an attention seeking whore with the moral fibre of a parasite...

[Zelda]

I cannot stand Coulter, Romney & especially Romneybots. To think for one minute Mittens is the right person at this time in history to tackle the problems of this country is delusional. Romney will hand us over to the globalists 1 year after the current bum in office would. That's the difference between the bozo's.

"We have to forget about gay marriage, abortion, etc. for now." -----Typical RINO quote that makes my skin crawl. The left never forgets their agenda's but the conservatives always have to put their cares aside so the RINO can save us from the left. Is it any wonder we are on the verge of collapse?

[Charles Martel]

You can relax Zelda, because the leftist are the ones who will go first once the jihadists formally get their hands on the pie. The jihadists destroy those who supported them first (they know where the skeletons are buried,) and then they will come for the rest. And we'll have to decided over the proverbial Islamic three choices.

We are way past internal political strife. Did you read Pamela's most recent post about Obama siding with Iran on the settlement of the 1983 Lebanon massacre? What do you think that four more years of the same will bring?

Even if the 2012 prophesies are false, Iran is willing to give it a helping hand ...

[Lenin-McCarthy]

I can say the same about Allen West.

[ApolloSpeaks]

Is this Mitt Romney fanatic the woman who authored the Conservative masterpiece Demonic? Her vicious attacks on Newt Gingrich remind me of the frenzied French mobs she describes in her book dragging innocent people to the guillotine. She just doesn't criticize Gingrich, she rips out his throat with wild abandon in demonic fashion. Truth is, Newt has done more for Conservatism than a 100 Ann Coulters, and (as Linsey Graham says) deserves great respect for his accomplishments, whatever his shortcomings as a candidate.

[Revnant Dream]

Coulter has become a Kathleen Parker. Sad day for Conservatism.

[Alana]

Coulter and Beck have both come unhinged, only to become kindred spirits.

[Jeffrey Hardin]

Ann has lost her bloody mind! Christie is as worse as Romney!

[Brian_R_Allen]

.... Miss Coulter is unhinged. I hate to speak that truth but you can see she is beside herself and is staking out positions she wouldn't support in other contexts Covering for mainstream media reporters, for example ....

Although I have seen and have participated all over the web in the dissection and absolute rejection and repudiation of Miss Coulter's contortions in support of Mittens the miserable Massachusetts moderate, none have done it more succinctly than has (at: http://mrc-tv.s3.amazonaws.com/sites/default/files/audio/109706.mp3 ) the magnificent Doctor of Laws, F Lee Levin!

May the G-d of Israel long guide and protect him.

And you, too, Brave Lady!

[ARNOLD CARL TAPP]

COULTER IS JUST ANOTHER DUMB BLOND BROAD AND A LEFTWINGER . WHY DO EVEN PUBLISH THE
USELESS DRIVEL " it " SPOUTS ? SHE IS ALWAYS ON THE WRONG SIDE OF EVERY ISSUE , AND NEVER SAYS ANYTHING WHICH MAKES SENSE ,