By rescinding an invitation to speak — and subsequently offering an alternative date, when class is not in session, which Coulter declined — Berkeley made Coulter a free-speech martyr. The episode was a win for her. My takes are so hot, she could say, that liberal snowflakes melt at the mere thought of having to confront them.

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Instead, she said this: “I am definitely giving the speech. I was invited to give a speech.”

And Carlson's face did this:

Now, a day ahead of her original date, Coulter finally has abandoned her plan to speak on the Berkeley campus — which she could have done, despite the university's withdrawal of an invitation, because she had picked a public plaza as the site for her remarks.

Nothing good could have come of Coulter's stubbornness.

Berkeley anticipated violent demonstrations, which is why the university canceled her talk, in the first place.

“If somebody brings weapons, there’s no way to block off the site, or to screen them,” Berkeley Chancellor Nicholas Dirks told The Washington Post on Tuesday. “In an open space, you have almost no control over that. The challenges are immense.”

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Even groups that sought to bring Coulter to campus were uncomfortable with her initial refusal to pull out.

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“We’re worried about it turning into a huge battle between her security and conservative militia and antifascists and others,” Pranav Jandhyala, founder of a nonpartisan campus club called BridgeCal, told The Post. “We’re worried about violence and student safety and our own safety, as well.”

BridgeCal partnered with the Berkeley College Republicans and a national organization called the Young America's Foundation to coordinate Coulter's appearance. The foundation said in a statement Tuesday that “Ms. Coulter may still choose to speak in some form on campus, but Young America’s Foundation will not jeopardize the safety of its staff or students.”

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Ultimately, the Young America's Foundation on Wednesday ordered Coulter not to appear at Berkeley, according to her. “Everyone who should be for free speech has turned tail and run,” she said.

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Coulter's frustration is understandable, but there was virtually zero chance that she would have been able to lead the kind of productive, interactive session she had envisioned. The Berkeley student newspaper reported in March, when Coulter was booked, that she planned to address illegal immigration and had insisted on a question-and-answer period, so that she could engage students.

In an outdoor venue, surrounded by protesters, it is hard to imagine that the best-selling author would have managed a constructive dialogue.