Yep. IMO the best role for the tea party is to build a coalition around the best conservative candidate—and them back him or her through to election.
Tossing lots of marginal candidates out there without a focus on bolstering the single best one is a losing strategy at all levels of politics.
there IS NO Tea Party per se…..it’s ALWAYS been a mindset. An individual freedom and limited government mindset. As such, there is no way to “herd the cats” when 2,3,4 candiates with some TP cred enter.
The problem is then focused on how is the coalition to be built and the most agreeable of the conservative candidates to be chosen?
In my mind, the solution is a conservative secondary. That is a bone breaking, blood letting winner take all conservative process that selects one candidate for the primary.
Come the primary, there is conservative solidarity. The problem is that rather than submit to such a process, many singleminded conservatives simply take their foot ball and go home if their narrowly focused candidate loses