Article by Allahpundit over at Hot Air:-----------
A better question: Why shouldn’t Palin skip CPAC? She’s got her grassroots flank covered by speaking at the tea party convention and she’s got her party establishment flank covered by speaking at the SRLC. What does she gain by speaking at CPAC? With no obvious benefit in attending, better to skip it and use your absence to burnish your credentials as a crusader against corporate interests. Even Rick Moran, who’s no Palin fan, agrees she’s making some shrewd moves.
Or is she? A better question is, should Palin be skipping the tea party convention?:
....“She thinks she’s coming to endorse the tea party movement, but most tea party people won’t be there because they can’t afford it,” [Anthony Shreeve, a Tennessee tea-party organizer,] said. “The tea party movement is a grass-roots movement; it’s not a business,” he added, asserting the convention “could potentially harm the movement, because it’s a premature national initiative that doesn’t have the support of the majority of we the people.”
The base loves her too much to hold her participation in the cooptation of the tea-party movement against her, but for what little it’s worth, when I tweeted about the ticket prices last night there was plenty of grumbling in response and some complaints (echoed in Politico’s story) that the convention isn’t a “true” bottom-up leaderless tea-party event. If she’s decided she’ll only do either that or CPAC, she probably made the right choice — it’s tea partiers who have the media buzz right now — but I’m not sure it’s an unalloyed good. Exit question: Is it?
---------------------
Well, Allah was going good for about a paragraph at least. "Cooptation," really? Come on.
You know what really bugs me? When someone claims to speak for us and they really don't. Who says the Convention doesn't have the majority support of "we the people." I'm a "we the people." I can't afford to go. But good gravy, yeah, I support it!
The Tea Party Convention isn't for everyone and their mom - it's for the state and local leaders of the movement - kind of a workshop if you will. If they lowered the price to almost nothing, they'd probably have a couple million people show up. Which would be cool, I guess, but this isn't a rally or a protest - this is about trying to get some degree of organization injected into the movement so that it can be more effective in the 2010 elections and beyond.
Calm down, Allah. Breathe. It's the symbolism that matters.
3 comments:
Re: CPAC
Someone who worked under Governor Palin said (paraphrasing from memory), “She doesn’t hang out with the ‘right’ crowd. She doesn’t go to the right parties, etc. She doesn’t get along with those (Alaskan Elite) people.”
No CPAC? The traditional route to political success by kissing the elites’ ring and asking for their blessing? How can anyone doubt that she’s a reformer. Anyone else jumps at an invite. Relentless attacks by Dems and half the GOP, and she doesn’t let up. Wow! She’s tough. They write stories about heros like her.
Btw, I care about her, so like usual, she’s giving me an ulcer. Sometimes I want her to take the traditional safe route - not really, because then it wouldn’t be Sarah. But I think someday she’ll win the support of the GOP, and it will be nice to have those with power on her side. It’s not like President Palin is going to fire all of them; I’m sure some aren’t corrupt.
Bill! Good to see you.
LOL! Sarah has given me a few ulcers, the biggest one when she resigned. I was literally sick to my stomach by the reports until I heard her speech. Then I was still shaking and shocked, but at least the nausea went away:)
The girl knows that she's unique. To use a Biblical analogy, she's David and the McCain campaign tried to send her out there in Saul's armor. It just doesn't work for her. She'll take the route that seems crazy (a little sling and a few rocks), but she'll kill that giant, you betcha!
Post a Comment