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If Tea Party is about fiscal discipline, Newt's not a bad choice. He's worked to balance the federal budget unlike anyone else running, his tax plan is deliberately not revenue neutral to ensure the beast can't be fed at the rate it demands even now, he has proposal for hundreds of billions in reform, restructure and replacement, he describes himself as a "cheap" hawk and has proposals to shift more responsibility back to the states and localities. He has a keen understanding of the nation's history, including its founding.

Since there's no formal Tea Party, and the movement has been twisted to mean all things to all users of the phrase, it may just be another sham populist uprising that will wither and self-defeat like Perot's Reform Party.

Instead of it being focused on fiscal sanity and limited constitutional federal gov't, it's hijacked into all kinds of other areas like social policy which dilutes and distracts from its focus.

My question about Newt is whether he'll be a focused and disciplined president. If he can achieve his potential, he could be pretty great. If he falls short, we could be mired and listless. No matter if it's a GOP president or four more of Obama (as is my belief) the critical election will be the Congress.

"Instead of it being focused on fiscal sanity and limited constitutional federal gov't, it's hijacked into all kinds of other areas like social policy which dilutes and distracts from its focus."

Well put, the Tea Party hijackers dilute the message and the press jumps all over it like Bill Clinton on a pole stripper.