"Palin Wraps McCain in Tea Party Movement (Says He Was There at the Beginning)"
So far, the Tea Party movement has been very successful at keeping at bay those critics and enemies who would LOVE to claim it's an arm of the Republican Party.
Palin has done the Movement no favors by stupidly linking the RINO worm, McAmnesty, to these grass-roots patriots.....even slyly intimating he was one of the "founding" supporters.
In fact, I find her bubbling chirrupings on this to be incredibly unheeding and damaging. I hope someone calls her on this and puts a plug in her mouth before she does more harm to the non-partisan and highly-successful Tea Party Movement.
Sarah, you have NO business linking the noxious McCain to the Tea Parties in any way, shape or form. Please don't do it again.
Leni
The Tea Party movement is exactly what you described - a movement, not a third party. It is a mix of disaffected GOP, Dems, and Indies, mostly fiscal conservatives. They will vote in November for the candidate that is for smaller and less intrusive government. McCain
in general has not been a Big Government guy. Sure he has been on the wrong side of many issues and is a faux-conservative. But he also suffered extreme torture on behalf of his country - something I doubt I could have survived, and he is the main reason most of the people outside of Alaska have even heard of Sarah Palin. She owes him, big time. She will need what few supporters he has (and the State of Arizona) should she run in 2012. In some respects, I think McCain went off the rails after losing to W in the 2000 primaries, but the loss to The Supreme Being in 2008 brought him back to reality. He is no longer the media darling. Maybe he had an epiphany... who can say? Maybe he is a closet lefty... what matters is Sarah believes he is a Conservative. And Sarah is GOP all the way... the Tea Party movement likes her populism, but she will go establishment GOP when push comes to shove.
That all being said, the Tea Party Movement I believe needs a true outsider to take the lead. Not someone as controversial as Sarah Palin, and not someone in Washington. Who that would be... is anybody's guess.