Last night, Ann Coulter, best-selling author, commentator and lawyer, candidly expressed her conservative views to a packed audience in 100 Thomas.

Coulter spoke for about 30 minutes and then opened up the floor to the audience to ask questions.

During her speech, Coulter used humor and sarcasm to address such issues as the 2004 Presidential Election, the war with Iraq and the war on terror.

She opened up the speech by expressing her distaste for Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry.

"How did this guy beat out the other ones?" She said jokingly. "He served in Vietnam?"

Coulter went on to praise the Bush Administration's decision to invade Iraq and condemn liberals for opposing military action.

"The war was a magnificent success," she said. "Every bombing, every casualty, liberals complain about."

She also said it is hypocritical for liberals to oppose the war with Iraq on the grounds that Saddam Hussein posed no direct threat to the United States. She said just a decade ago, liberals supported sending troops to Yugoslavia when Slobodan Milosevic posed no imminent danger to the United States.

Coulter also declared that she sees no problem with the United States going to war for oil.

"Why not go to war just for oil?" She said. "We need oil. Of course we consume most of the world's oil; we do most of the world's production."

But perhaps Coulter's most controversial arguments were her comments that while liberals oppose racial profiling, she sees the practice as necessary to identify potential terrorists.

She said racial profiling is simply "a description of the suspect," but liberal opposition gives terrorists "a cushion for the next attack."

"Half of them were named Mohammed, but we pretend we have no idea who to look for," she said during her speech. Her right-wing views produced a mix reaction from the audience, which included all points on the political spectrum.

While her frequent anti-liberal remarks earned her a roar of applause from conservative supporters, other audience members who disagreed with Coulter's arguments sat fuming, and some even yelled out in opposition.

During the question-and-answer period, which lasted over an hour, a long line formed of audience members who bombarded Coulter with heated questions about her speech tonight as well as ideas she wrote in her books.

As they left the lecture hall, students expressed mixed reactions to Coulter's speech.

"I didn't agree with a lot of what she said," Justine Ansell (freshman-business administration) said. "I'm not a conservative. Her views were a lot different from mine. I wasn't very interested in what she had to say."

Emma Cox (freshman-integrative arts) disagreed with Coulter's anti-liberal remarks.

"One idea she said was all liberals and Democrats hate Americans," Cox said. "She's making a lot of broad generalizations."

Don Fiorilli (graduate-industrial relations and human resources) said Coulter's speech was "completely one-sided."

"She didn't address any questions," he said. "She inoculated the audience with fear of international terrorism rather than focus on terrorism here in the United States."

Steve Kaufman (graduate-industrial relations) did not approve of Coulter's style.

"I think she used humor to avoid answering any questions that reflected her own views," he said.

However, some students supported Coulter's conservative ideas.

"I agree with a lot of her points," Lori Simon (senior-music education) said. "I think we should complete the war on terrorism."

Marie Iannucci (freshman-accounting) also supported Coulter's views.

"I'm a big Ann Coulter fan," she said. "I agree with nearly all of her points. I agree with her quotes about how Democrats vote to involve America in a war effort then refuse to support it."

However, Iannucci said she did not completely agree with Coulter's style.

"Her behavior is a little rude for my taste, but she gets her point across," Iannucci said. "She's definitely lively."