Does the Tea Party Actually Matter?

Is the Tea Party a Ponzi scheme?

More than a few progressive Democrats may have already come to this conclusion, but Republican presidential candidates who participated in last night’s debate in Tampa certainly went out of their way to curry favor with Tea Party voters. Some had more at stake than others.

“I know we can do so much better in this country,” said Minnesota Congressman Michele Bachmann in her introduction. “That’s why I’m the chief author of the bill to repeal Dodd-Frank, the bill to repeal Obamacare. And that’s why I brought the voice of the Tea Party to the United States Congress as the founder of the Tea Party Caucus.”

Bachmann described herself as “the leading voice in the wilderness of Washington all summer” against raising the country’s debt ceiling, but Texas Gov. Rick Perry continued to take more wind out of her sails as he fended off attacks from former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney and Congressman Ron Paul on the economy, taxes, Social Security and immigration. She found her Tea Party mojo, however, when she blasted Perry over his executive order that requires HPV vaccines for girls as young as 11.

“I’m a mom. And I’m a mom of three children. And to have innocent little 12-year-old girls be forced to have a government injection through an executive order is just flat out wrong,” said Bachmann. “That should never be done. It’s a violation of a liberty interest.”

Rhetoric and strategic one-liners aside, last night’s debate raises the obvious specter of whether the Tea Party will emerge as a tangible force in 2012. Voters will obviously answer this question at the ballot box, but today’s special election in New York’s Ninth Congressional District for could potentially prove a harbinger of things to come.

Another day, another headline for Sarah Palin, Inc.

My “does not care one iota about anything related to ‘Dancing with the Stars’” Facebook proclamation sparked four comments and nine likes, but what is this expression of e-love's broader takeaway?

As last week’s post on Willow Palin’s homophobic rant on Facebook categorically proved, anything remotely related to the former Alaska governor and her family sparks immediate reaction—and a lot of blog traffic. The buzz around whether Tea Party supporters have rigged “Dancing with the Stars” to make sure Bristol Palin wins continues, but mama grizzly herself made headlines yesterday when she told Sean Hannity she would not sit down for another interview with Katie Couric.

"I want to help clean up the state that is so sorry today of journalism," said Sarah Palin, as reported by the Washington Post’s Rachel Weiner. "And I have a communications degree. I studied journalism -- who, what, where, when, and why of reporting. I will speak to reporters who still understand that cornerstone of our democracy, that expectation that the public has for truth to be reported. And then we get to decide our own opinion based on the facts reported to us. So a journalist, a reporter who is so biased and will, no doubt, spin and gin up whatever it is that I have to say to create controversy, I swear to you, I will not my waste my time with her. Or him."

Just another day—with an all too predictable headline and blog post—courtesy of the well-greased machine Sarah Palin, Inc., has become. Journalists, bloggers and anyone else who cares should obviously take note!