Palin Emerges as the Star of First National Tea Party Convention

I think it’s early days yet. We have the Tea Party movement alive, by whatever means necessary. Sarah Palin is a lightening rod. She’s keeping the Tea Party in the news.

By its nature, any young movement is amorphous.

I am no longer a Democrat. I voted for a Republican for the first time in my life in the presidential election. The ONLY way to the attention of the Democratic Party and the Republican Party is by threatening them. I don’t think a third party can work in this country.

However, if we scare the shit out of the existing parties by staying involved and by VOTING we will start seeing change. What did we see the obots try to do after they shamefully muscled Hillary out of the way?

OMG! Don’t vote for a Republican. (insert comments about wedge issues here – abortion, gay rights, Supreme Court, etc.

Vote for the Green Party.

Well, OK if you really and truly can’t bring yourself to vote for Obama stay home.

Sound familiar? Desperate times call for desperate measures. If I have to strategically vote for a Republican to punish a Democrat I will. I have finally had it with voting Democrat because “where else am I going to go?”

The Republican party contains people with a broader range of opions than you might thing. Registered Republicans can vote strategically against Republicans too!

The thing to avoid is just giving up. I hate it when I hear people say “What’s the use of voting? Both parties are bad.”

That what the assholes want you to do – stay home.

There will be a lot of turbulence, but as long as we can keep the fire burning we can avoid being co-opted by either party. Messy? Yep. Time consuming? You bet.

Possible? Abso-fucking-lutely!

Now your talkin’! That’s how it should be WE make demands and then we hold people accountable if they back down.

It’s bare knuckles time.

But Sarah is letting folks know her record of independence while belonging to a party.

Didn’t the Greens become a party?  And they still can’t get any traction.  It takes a lot.  And there has to be someone willing to change things, making a 3rd party more viable. jmho

And today Sarah did say, after last nights shouts of Run Sarah Run, “”I think that it would be absurd not to consider” a 2012 run, Ms. Palin, the GOP’s 2008 vice presidential nominee, said in an interview on “Fox News Sunday.” She said she would jump into the next presidential race if she believed it was “the right thing to do for the country” and for her family.”
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703427704575051380838858258.html?mod=WSJ_hpp_MIDDLENexttoWhatsNewsSecond

I think it’s funny watching each piece come in with “her 100,000 speaking fee”, none reporting what she has been saying for weeks, that she would not profit from this speaking engagement.  Again, taking the moment in last nights question and answer to bring it up again and say she would give her fee to the cause.  CBS posted the video, cutting out the first remarks asking if there were any service persons there…and then cutting out the question and answer period, where she stated that.  That amounts to lying.

And gee, what a surprise, huh?

I’m back and forth with Sarah lately.  I was all PUMA4PALIN until this last interview with Wallace.  She was too rigid or GOP for me. I wish Hillary would run. I can’t stand the right or the left.

What the Republicans and Democrats are hoping for is the following:

1) The Tea Party people give up and stay home.
2) The Tea Party people fight amongst themselves.
3) The Tea Party people get stereotyped as “old white people

None of that stuff worked? Oh, shit! Time to use the nuclear option”

4) Those naughty bad Tea Party people form a third party. I call this option “Naderization.” Naderization means that the Tea Party movement looks loony, looks marginal and in the very worst possible case scenario, can only act as a spoiler. So the Republicans and the Democrats can figure out how to use the Tea Party movement against the opposition, but in reality the Tea Party has no power. The Tea Party becomes a pawn in a “wink wink” kind of game between the established parties.

There are so many decicated, savvy people out here who are not afraid of hard work. I say destroy the established parties from within and replace the hacks with good candidates.

Give voters a REAL choice. No more manipulating us with wedge issued.

We can start right now by demanding and getting public financing laws passed. And term limits. Just pressing these two issues forward and demanding results will have an impact. No third party is needed.

Oh, and let’s be sure to make an example of the first politicians who lie to us about these issues.

Pick a broad issue where we can gain consensus (public financing and term limits) and hammer the hell out it. And keep hammering the hell out it.

Nothing is worse than indecision, or fretting about details.

I was a lifelong Dem…until this past election, no longer, now an Indy, but registered to vote in the Repub. primary in my state (you have to choose Rep. or Dim. to be able to vote).  I am delighted with the Tea Party.  I thought Sarah did a Smackdown.  The Tea Party is organized well in my state of NM.  

I think this movement will burgeon.  I hope this is just the beginning.  It makes me smile to see now crazed the lefties get with Sarah and the Tea Party.  

I would like to see a third Party, but don’t think it’s possible without a leader to push it forward.  What we have, however, is a growing and palpable COALITION that is acting as a political force.  Many who are unhappy with both parties have come together through such a coalition (Independents, PUMAS, Tea Partiers, exiled Dems and Repubs) to push back against unpopular and dangerous policies, etc. In many ways, as I believe, political Parties are becoming obsolete.  Perhaps acting coalitions are the wave of the future, since they are not fixed entities and can respond to specific issues and act according to the political landscape and to contemporary conditions.  Coalitions cannot compete with Parties on many levels, but they can co-opt Party pols to address coalition concerns and even adopt a coalition strategy.  On some level, Sarah Palin and Scott Brown understand this.  I hope Hillary is keeping a close eye on not only such figures, but on studying this new COALITION MOVEMENT (or phenomenon) so that she can take full advantage of it and push it to the next level if she decides to run again.

ot

http://www.courant.com/community/middletown/hc-middletown-ct-power-plant-explosion,0,3952195.story

This is the latest I could find on the explosion.

If the tea party group were to be independent and not alligned with either party they could gather more people and make a statement that could change the country. I think pumas would join. But if it is strickly republican many people will not support them.
Both the democratic and republican parties have been taken over by loonies the tea party people and the pumas togather could make voices heard.

WOMEN WITH INTELLIGENCE AND EXPERIENCE,MEN WHO SUPPORT THEM AND COUNTRY BEFORE PARTY ALWAYS

PUMAS,BUBBAS,EQUALISTS AND THOSE PEOPLE RULE

The Tea Party is Palin’s baby now. She will breast feed it until the time to wean it. After its weaned it will begin in its terrible twos. Then it will need discipline. It may throw a tantrum and fall from the high chair and knock itself out.

Retards, all of you.

Don’t worry, Sarah said this time it’s okay. Rush and I get passes for some reason.

PE, The Washington Post reads “600 delegates”.

she took bo to the woodshed  go Sarah!!!!!!!!!!

It’s worth looking at the development and end of the Whig Party which was similar to the Tea Party because it came about because of extreme dissatisfaction over a President trying to take on too much power, but they lacked the cohesion of ideology. The question with this Tea Party is if there is a cohesive ideology that will bind them or, with a major defeat of Obama and return of the GOP will they fall apart?

This is a nice article about the motivations of the Tea Party.  It’s so obvious when Tea Party opposition ruminates on what the Tea Party is.  They either can’t or refuse to get it right.  I think there are at least a couple of reasons the Tea Party hasn’t got off the ground to the heights they could achieve:

1) They don’t clearly spell out their mission.  Most of what is said is what they are not, rather than what they are.  Defining yourself by what you are not is poor marketing — it allows the opposition to define your weaknesses.

2)  They need to ditch Sarah Palin or anyone else with any Party affiliations.  No matter how “moderate”, “liberal” or “conservative” any of these people may be, they will never shed the perception of being aligned with a political party.  How hard can it be to find someone from within their own ranks who is articulate, smart and motivating?  Sarah Palin, after all, was not well known outside AK before she landed on the national stage.  I listened to her keynote speech a little last night and I thought she came off too glib — she was seeking to create “sound bites”.  Well enough, but the Tea Party needs to be seriously represented and one glib shot after another at either or both Parties gets tiresome.  Broad generalizations about the Tea Party movement need to be expanded with substantive plans and details.  Generalities will lose a lot of  people who already know the generalities — they don’t need to be restated a dozen different ways.

3)  Those who might consider joining any third party are fed up with being hoodwinked into something fishy.  The Tea Party will suffer if they don’t deliver on the idea it is actually something non-partisan, bipartisan or middle-of-the-road conservatism.  And they need to define their terms in a day when “conversative” means GOP to most of us.  Trading the current admin for the old admin and its adherents is not an answer.

Okay, there’s my suggestions.  Noises off. 

Wow!  She must have some big hands!  She spoke for more than an hour!!  Either that or she writes really teeny tiny words…..sure, I believe she “cheated”, just like I believe Obama is just a regular guy who cares about people.  NOT.

I would like a dissertation from you, Emily, on why you have the right to use up oxygen.

tick, tick, tick

Actually I think both parties are in trouble, the tea party folks would like for our government to follow the Constitution, give us less government intrusion. Sounds good to me.
Country before Party!!

I want to know why she uses up bandwidth with her noxious remarks.

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Apparently not everyone in the “media” is in danger of becoming a Palinobot.   I think the Tea party probably has some good things going for it – in many ways they’re promoting the same causes at the progressives. But as for SP, it’s patently obvious she’s just another politician of the MeFirst party.  This from Salon:
 
Sarah Palin addresses attendees at the National Tea Party Convention in Nashville, Tenn., Saturday, Feb. 6, 2010.  
 
 
Eric Hoffer didn’t live to see Tea Party Nation, but I always think of his most famous quote when I’m forced to deal with it: ”"Every great cause begins as a movement, becomes a business, and eventually degenerates into a racket.”  
I’m not sure the Tea Party cause is a great one, but it’s an influential one, and it degenerated into a racket lickety split, in less than a year. This weekend’s gathering in Nashville splintered both the Tennessee and the national Tea Party movement, as local go-getter Judson Phillips set up the once-anticipated “convention” as his own for-profit business. We’ll have a first-hand report from the racket that paid Sarah Palin more than $100,000 to speak Saturday night. But I can’t help weighing in.  
Wow. This was the Palin we saw at the 2008 Republican convention, the snarling pitbull in shimmery lipstick.  I know journalists aren’t supposed to use words like mean and dumb, but I can’t help it. Palin is one of the meanest people on the public stage today. She wallows in it. She loves it! Also? Possibly one of the dumbest. But mean works, and so does dumb. And so do lies, and there were many mean, dumb lies in her speech.  
How rich that she read her talk in a sing-song voice as she ripped Barack Obama for using a Teleprompter. Once she left the speech for the Q&A, she really went off-message, as well as nearly off-English.  (Even though it looked like, at one point, she was reading answers off of her hand.) ”They’re not knowin what are we gonna do if we don’t have Tea Party support” was one of my favorite head-scratchers, a great echo of “when Putin rears his head.”  
But it was also in her brief Q&A that she made one comment she might regret, if anyone in the Republican Party ever held her accountable. She told the crowd her husband Todd — according to recently released emails, the non-elected former governor of Alaska — is “much too independent” to be a Republican, because he’s even “more conservative” than she is. What a great way to revisit the controversy over Todd’s membership in the secessionist Alaska Independent Party! Remember how Palin dogged poor McCain campaign manager Steve Schmidt, trying to get him to denounce Salon’s reporting on the Palins and AIP? She tried to get Schmidt to lie and say her husband checked the AIP box on voter forms mistakenly, and he refused. Now she’s bragging her husband isn’t a Republican because he’s so “independent.”  
She lied about rejecting stimulus money for Alaska (apparently she rejected a small home-weatherization project, which as it is sounds kind of mean for the governor of Alaska.) She lied about Obama’s position on terrorism and the Christmas Day would-be bomber. She mixed up Alaska and America at least once. It was hilarious to hear her denounce political “talk, talk, talk” and also brag about the job she did as governor, when in fact she quit that job to talk, talk, talk, for money, at wine shows and for-profit tea parties and of course for Fox News.  
I have to say, I’ve been assuming Palin probably won’t run for president, and that she quit her job as Alaska governor to cash in on her fame. I now feel pretty certain she’s trying to do both. She’s certainly looking like a grifter, and cashing in at the for-profit Tea Party Nation event, and taking questions from the increasingly despised Phillips, may hurt her politically. But it’s now pretty clear to me that in all her narcissism, she thinks she can get rich and run for president at the same time. And who am I to say she can’t, given the delusions of her right-wing supporters?

I was all for the tea parties as a way for our voices to be heard but  the way FOX and the republicans act it is for them.   the MSNBC and some of CNN commentators are kinda smirky.   It does seem to be not just against OB but  for republican principles and after Bush and Reagan .no thanks.     I would not want Sarah to run now ,because like Obama supporters the fans of Sarah are just as giddy about her and it scares me that she might get elected  for the same reasons Obama got elected or Scott Brown. because we are sick of the old president.

          BUSH two, Obama and now Sarah  are or were supposed to be the new approach,the fresh face,  but when it came down to it , they were just inexperienced or incompentant.   I want someone like Hillary  or someone, anyone, that knows how to work hard and do the job  with the best interests of the country.

to donojo:  picky, picky, picky

For those of you that are having to get all this information second-hand, most of the speeches and interviews can be found at http://www.pjtv.com for a quick, free registration.  

The tea party movement is not party specific.  (My husband, a lifelong democrat, and myself a PUMA, participate in tea party events when we can–we did change our registration in December though.)  Taxation without representation is a strong underlying theme.  If you believe in smaller government, fiscal responsibility, personal responsibility, liberty, and our Constitution, then you might be a tea partier.  You will never find an organization as diverse as the tea party where all people hold to the same  exact ideas.  

I find that tea partiers are independent thinking.  We believe it is our responsibility to do our own research on candidates and make up our own minds as to who we should support and not mindlessly follow a “so-called leader”.  I don’t think Sarah Palin claims to be our leader; as she said, it’s a grassroots movement.  But Sarah sure gives an inspiring speech — and isn’t that what keynote speakers are supposed to do?  

Also, I don’t think the majority of tea partiers are looking to start a 3rd party, but we expect to stay more aware, more vigilant, and to hold our representatives accountable.  

Regarding Sarah Palin, if you’ll pay close attention, you’ll find it’s the media pushing the Palin for President issue.  Didn’t they do the same thing to Hillary?  The media always has to push politicians toward some sort of announcement just to keep a ruckus going.

I enjoyed listening/watching all of the speeches and interviews from the Tea Party Convention provided by PJTV.  Did I agree with everything said?  Of course not.  But I feel my time was well spent.

http://www.pjtv.com

“All these idiots on tweeter and blogs claiming that Palin had writing on her hand. How Lame are these people!! You can see her hands as she waives them around all throughout speech. People are sheep and will believe anything”

Only a blind person could convincingly believe that NoBama.  Of course, next week, once even you have come to the realization that she was reading off of her hand, you’ll be defending her idiocy once again.

Limbaugh is a pompus commentator while Mr. Emanuel is the White House Chief of Staff. One voices his political opinion while the other shapes the Nation’s public policy. One these men is in a position of authority while the other is just an entertainer. I can see which of the two men deserves more public scrutiny over the words that he chooses to use.  Both men deserve criticism but the White House Chief of State should be held to a higher standard.

It is amazing she can fit all that text onto her hand.  Had she graduated from some elite university she would have known the telepromter is the prefered way for sight-reading to speech functionality. I wonder if her hand also include directions on when to pause for applause or laughs.

Meanwhile, The Dear Reader has his notes as well:

The writing on Sarah’s hand…

Then the writing on Bama’s hand…

She did have reminders on her hand…no TOTUS though.  She didn’t want to forget to mention Energy, Taxes, American Spirit…

Talk ablout haters… here we go again…but not really because most of you with PDS don’t have a clue as to what we’re about.  Stay just as you are.  Please.

I am weary of the “third parties fail” talking points. The Democrats began as an alternative to the Federalists. The GOP began as a third party alternative to the Whigs and the Democrats. We are witnessing a full scale collapse of the Democratic party (though most Dems are still in denial about it). The GOP is energized but without focus beyond Reagan fetishizing. We need a third party badly. No, it probably won’t win national elections right away. But it would be a force for balance and action. A third – and fourth – party could form alliances – demand to be heard, influence policy. All outside the constraints of the dangerously sick 2 party system. 

Every bit of anger and distress is funneled into one party then another (the subtext of “hope and change” was always fury and pain.) I don’t want Newt Gingrich and the Dick Cheney faction to benefit from my outrage at Obama and Pelosi because I have “no where else to go”.  Dying in a gas chamber or by firing squad is a moot point to the one giving up the ghost. I’d rather be on the outside pounding on the door and scaring the daylights out of those on the inside – forcing them to behave with something  akin to integrity – then to watch the country die. And that is what is happening. None of this should be in denial about this. Our futures are evaporating. 

There is “somewhere else to go”. And we shall go there – and it won’t be pleasant – if we don’t get rid the cancer of the 2 party system. 

Bush-Cheney. LMAO. You guys are a riot. Where’s the jobs?

If moderate, reasonable Indpentment minded people stay home only the idealogues and fringies, and the every present and corrupt media, will decide our elections.

If you keep yourself as informed as possible you can always vote for the “best” of bad choices. And that should not be based on some dimwitted party loyalty.

I always vote. I consider it my “ticket” to bitch. Long, loud and often. If you aren’t part of the process your complaints are hypocritical.

If the Tea Party movement continues to allow asshats like Tom Tancredo to speak at their conventions, they will quickly lose me and many other moderate Independents who were cheering them on.

 They need to get the “nuts” off the buffet table. Fast.

Hey, in Ohio, my little group is trying to get 50 Republicans (tea party members), and 50 normal decent rational Democrats to sign up for the central committees of each party.  Then we can inject some reality, some honesty, and some good government by taking over from the inside.  Get the 50 Republicans is easy since we are currently “out of power” and the rage against the machine has been brewing for 10 years.  Folks, normal people did not like all the spending and correuption and paybacks under the GOP.  We were writing and calling and pleading with them to quit stealing our money and using it to name buildings after themselves or to take home the bacon for re-election.
So Sarah Palin is starting where she knows and later, she is going to shock everyone by endorsing some real honest, decent, sane Democrats.  So if we want to take back our country, our government, and rule ourselves, then we have to step up to the plate and be our own Sarah Palins.

I went to Nashville for the banquet.  I got to meet Carl Cameron, Andrew Breitbart, and Glenn Reynolds.  I got to drink with Joe Bailey of arrest fame from the New Orleans 4.  I got to feel the energy and excitement as people from all around the country said, hey, this middle tent is for whites, blacks, yellows, browns, reds, straights, gays, and everyone who believes that it is time for the real people to join together to get ‘er done.  And for the first time in 10 years, I believe this country is going to emerge better, stronger, and the ultimate Global leader for this new age.

Hey Ohio Granny,

Was that you drinking with Breitbart at Rusty’s Bar and Grill? It was exciting seeing all those bloggers and news people covering the event; about 100 times more coverage than the 9/12 Washington DC event got.

They are finally starting to take notice. The one thing I learned from attending all those events was that like me almost no one attending was politically active before. America is in the midst of a revival, in spite of our faults, we have the best country in the world and we want to keep it that way and not become “WARDS OF THE STATE”.

I was very disappointed in Sarah Palin’s speech and her interview with Chris Wallace. I thought there was more there to her that just needed exposure. All she does is recite campaign talking points – even in interviews. Either she is still uncomfortable with the national stage or there just is not enought there.

Then the crib notes on the hand. Whether we want to believe it or not that image finishes her as a candidate for President. That image will be mercilessly mocked throughout any campaign she is in. Can you imagine Hillary Clinton giving a speech with crib notes on her hand? of course not. What you are seeing now is nothing compared to what the opposition will do to her in an actual campaign.

She should have simply had cards or notes when she gave the speech. What she did was dumb. I like her and her story, but after Obama, Americans are going to want substance over style and Sarah was not ready for it yet.

Absolutely, Sassy.  In response to your second point:  I am constantly amazed that the media AND this administration act as though they are baffled by this “little tea-party” thing, when you KNOW they have been studying it 24/7, and are trying to get ahead of it.

“That amounts to lying.”

You’re right, but let ‘em lie.  When the media elites and the ‘creative class’-hahaha-ridicule and lie about her,  it only makes her stronger.