beck jumped out in front of the tea parties - he did not start them
beck seems to me to be an opportunist
See Glenn Beck Archives: Rallies for America
Remember, this was 2003. The 25,000 people in Atlanta still probably remains as the biggest rally in the city in the last 20 years. The Atlanta Tea Party was in the 15,000 to 20,000 range.
"beck jumped out in front of the tea parties - he did not start them"
I never said Beck started the Tea Party movement. The Tea Party idea was started by CNBC's Rick Santelli on February 19th 2009. It was Dick Armey's FreedomWorks which was the driving force behind the rallies. Beck may have jumped on the bandwagon, but he was on it early. Beck's proposed the 9-12 Project on March 13th.
I do not know of any other talk radio hosts who sponsored, and were involved in, specific grass-roots projects during this time.
As I recall, many such as Rush and Hannity, were reluctant to get behind the Tea Party movement. I would note once the Tea Parties started happening, Hannity was happy to have his camera and face in front of them. So there are opportunists everywhere.
It is very odd for any other radio host to criticize Beck, who has a history of direct grass-roots involvement, for not being involved. It would be perfectly fair for a host who chooses not to be involved, such as Rush, who specifically chooses not to, to criticize another host for being an active participant rather than a detached commentator. But to claim Beck sits behind his microphone rather than being involved, is really dishonest.
Let me turn this to Levin, who started this discussion. Levin brings up his work 30 and 34 years ago with Reagan's campaigns. My question to Levin would be: "What have you done for me lately?" No offense to Levin, who has written some outstanding books, and contributed mightily to the cause, but my point is fair.
As for Bill Bennett, his criticism of Beck's speech is an very fair criticism of the first 15 minutes of Beck's 55 minute speech. But I can only conclude from Bennett's comments, that Bennett changed the channel and did not see the final 40 minutes of the speech.
Beck has a common man's humanity which connects with many people. A stoic academic like Bennett, and a cold lawyer like Levin, don't connect on the same level. Beck's comments on the role of failure as a sometimes necessary building block to later success, and how preventing someone from failing only delays ultimate failure were powerful. It was something I had not thought of, but I realized I have seen this in family members and friends.
It is very fair to criticize some of Beck's CPAC speech, as it is some of his other actions. But it is also very fair to praise other parts of both Beck's CPAC speech and his other activities.