Palin: "Absurd Not to Consider 2012 Presidential Run", Snubs Tea Party Nation

On Fox News Sunday, Sarah Palin commented that she felt it “absurd” not to consider a 2012 Presidential run . . . and added a subtle backhand to the Tea Party movement.

Hedging her bets, Sarah Palin charged $100,000 to speak at the first Tea Party Nation convention, where attendees paid $500 to get in the convention plus over $300 just to hear her speech. By not speaking for free, Palin avoids being tied too closely to Tea Party Nation.

The Wall Street Journal reports that while Palin was happy to gain support from the (for-profit) Tea Party (Nation) movement, she didn’t want them to interfere with the two-party system:

Asked whether she might run on the Tea Party ticket, Ms. Palin declined to answer directly, saying she hoped that the nascent movement remains a “movement of the people” and that its members “don’t believe that they need some kind of well-oiled machine” to have a political impact.

While Tea Partiers may be offended, they shouldn’t be surprised. It was only just over a week ago that Palin recommended that the Republican Party absorb Tea Party Nation:

Fox’s Greta Van Susteren asked if tea party candidates would end up siphoning votes from GOP nominees, or if the movement will “merge with the Republican Party.”

“They need to merge,” Palin said. “Definitely, they need to merge. I think those who are wanting the divisions and the divisiveness and the controversy — those are the ones who don’t believe in the message. And they’re the ones, I think, stirring it up.”

The pressure to push Tea Party Nation from its original roots as a movement espousing low taxes and smaller government — not a police state and farm subsidies and Republican-only government — may be the reason both Michele Bachmann and Martha Blackburn dropped out . . . leaving Palin as the only big name.

Blogger Kleinhelder at the Nashville Post sums it up nicely.

This new tea party bears no resemblance to the one that began a year ago as a reaction to the collapse of our financial system and the subsequent bailout. That movement of ragtag and unorganized libertarians, independents and conservatives was something new and unique. An authentic protest movement angered not just by the new President, Barack Obama, who had presided over the bailouts but the president who started the ball rolling and whose incompetence had led to the crisis in the first place, George W. Bush.

The people we saw on the steps of Legislative Plaza and county courthouses across the state last year weren’t “movement conservatives.” Certainly the movement conservatives were there at those protests but the tea parties were much bigger in size, scope and concept than just traditional modern conservatism reheated. Last night, the professional conservatives fixed that for good.

For over a year the media has struggled to try and define just what exactly the movement was. Now they have a definition.

Sarah Palin.

WSJ provides a bit more on Tea Party Nation:

As first reported by POLITICO, Tea Party Nation is a for-profit company that also operates a social network site by the same name. [Tea Party Nation CEO Judson] Phillips intends to turn a profit from the convention, with the stated goal of seeding a so-called 527 group that would air ads praising conservative candidates or criticizing their opponents.

But on Saturday he said there likely wouldn’t be much profit, and whatever money is made will go to a second convention he’s planning for July.

I’m sure Phillips will not show any substantial profit from the convention, and that he will clearly demonstrate why on the Tea Party Nation website.

Be careful if you decide to join the Tea Party Nation forum. Irregular Times collected a few details from the “revolutionary, non-partisan, 100%-password-protected (including the FAQ)” website:

* it is a corporation which has trademarked the phrase “Tea Party Nation” and will sue anyone else who uses the words.

* “You can and will be banned for being a liberal.”

* “Tea Party Nation reserves the right to ban anyone for any reason we feel necessary”

* “Trashing of TPN will not be tolerated.”

* “Questions regarding TPN posted in the public forums or blogs on the site will be deleted.”

* “It is not a forum for… calls for militant uprisings.”

* “Tea Party Nation’s strict No Tolerance policy will not make exceptions… if you see such postings, you immediately report them”

While Tea Party Nation’s speakers call for a revolution for the cameras, any actual revolutionary behavior or dissent will be result in swift dismissal. That’s an interesting combination.

A screenshot would be nice, Irregular Times guys!

Related articles:

1. Congressman: Tea Party must be about social conservatism, too
2. Huckabee Pummels Romney, Palin as Conservative Presidential Pick
3. Glenn Beck’s Tea Party Personality: A Lot More Ron Paul Than Sarah Palin
4. In Brief: More Tea Party racism
5. Christian Dominionist attacks Tea Party "hypocrites"

Jenny Donati is webmistress and co-editor of Secular News Daily. Jenny is an outspoken secularist who believes firmly in the separation of church and state. She demands evidence to support arguments, and holds herself to the same standard. She doesn't write about herself in the third person . . . but there's a first time for everything.

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