Ann Coulter: 'I would prefer Ron Paul as President to Newt Gingrich'

While appearing on Fox News' "Red Eye," late Monday, conservative columnist Ann Coulter said she would "prefer Ron Paul as President to Newt Gingrich."

Coulter, never one for holding back her opinion, was not endorsing the Texas Congressman, but rather, continuing her war against the former House Speaker.

"He's fantastic on domestic policy," she said of Paul, adding "you just kinda want to keep him away from foreign policy."

"Doing nothing, like Ron Paul wants to do, is better than doing bad stuff like our current President is doing," she said.

The comments drew a firestorm of criticism from conservatives on Tuesday.

A post at The Right Scoop noted:

Ok, she’s not saying she’d vote for a third party Ron Paul like Beck did, so that’s good. But still, this anti-Newt sentiment has caused the crazy to come out even in Ann Coulter, who says that she’d prefer a President Paul over a President Gingrich.

Jim Hoft of Gateway Pundit said Coulter lost her mind.

Mark Whittington wrote at Yahoo:

If Coulter is put off by Gingrich's occasional lapses into heterodoxy (though curiously not Mitt Romney's), she has to be appalled by some of the things Paul has said, written, or allowed to be written under his name. The Republicans cannot contemplate nominating a man whose foreign policy views seem informed by George McGovern and his racial views, at least according to the infamous newsletters, akin to those of David Duke.

Gingrich might occasionally say things that raise eyebrows, like the idea of hauling judges before congressional committees to explain themselves. However, his foreign policy is right in the Republican mainstream. Gingrich has never suggested blacks are more prone to criminal activity than other people.

A post at ology.com notes:

Popular conservative columnist Joshua Treviño took to Twitter to echo the sentiments of many in the Republican establishment when he colorfully expressed his reservations about Paul’s untraditional foreign policy perspectives.

“If it’s Barack Obama versus Ron Paul, I'm voting for the guy who thought shooting Osama bin Laden in the face was a good idea,” Treviño tweeted.

He is most assuredly not alone. Among the 50+ retweets this comment generated, one of them was “ Anyone But O 2012” – a draft Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) for president twitter account.

Reaction was mixed among Paul supporters on at least two forums dedicated to his candidacy.

One poster at the Daily Paul noted that Coulter has "been in camp Romney since the beginning. This is a TACTIC to knock Gingrich down a peg."

"Hell has frozen over," noted a commenter at ronpaulforums.com.

"It doesn't make any sense to say you would endorse Ron over Newt, but then say Romney is the best choice for president because he can give good speeches (which snity, he did say a couple weeks ago)," said another.

In a recent appearance on Fox News' Hannity, Coulter said former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney and Congresswoman Michele Bachmann were the two most conservative candidates. But she also held both Gingrich and Paul in fairly low regard.

"Newt Gingrich is tied with Ron Paul, and only Ron Paul because of his foreign policy, as the least conservative candidate," she said.

Coulter has not hidden her desire to see Romney elected.

In a Nov. 16 column entitled "If not Romney, who? If not now, when?" she sang the governor's praises.

She wrote that "everyone knows the nominee is going to be Romney."

"That's not so bad if you think the most important issues in this election are defeating Obama and repealing Obamacare," she added.

Since then, two of her four weekly articles have been dedicated to bashing Newt Gingrich.

On December 7 - Pearl Harbor Day, she wrote:

The day after the Republicans' historic takeover of the House of Representatives in the 1994 election, Newt was off and running, giving a series of Fidel Castro-style speeches about "the Third Wave information revolution." It had the unmistakable ring of lingo from his new-age gurus, Alvin and Heidi Toffler.

(Newt, who was married at the time, also began dating again.)

A week later, she included supporters of Newt Gingrich in her criticism of the former House Speaker:

Fellow right-wingers: Is our objective to taunt Obama by accusing him of "Kenyan, anti-colonial behavior," of being "authentically dishonest" and a "wonderful con" -- and then lose the election -- or is it to defeat Obama, repeal Obamacare, secure the borders, enforce e-verify, reform entitlement programs, reduce the size of government and save the country?

If all you want is to lob rhetorical bombs at Obama and then lose, Newt Gingrich -- like recent favorite Donald Trump -- is your candidate. But if you want to save the country, Newt's not your guy.

Whittington adds:

One other fact about Gingrich stands out that the Newt-haters like Coulter should consider. He has actually done things to advance the conservative agenda. He has balanced budgets, cut taxes, reformed welfare, and has got regulation. The promise of more of the same from a President Gingrich should make one ignore the occasional flight of fancy.

Is Gingrich perfect? No. Truth be told, all of the GOP candidates have their good points and their bad. But as Whittington observes, Coulter should at least acknowledge the things he has accomplished.

More on Newt Gingrich at Examiner.com here.

----------------------------------------------------------------

If you like this article, you can follow Joe on Twitter @jnewby1956, visit his Facebook page, or click the Subscribe button to receive email updates when a new article is published.