This is NOT good news about Sarah Palin running, right?

[anonymousbird]

Redneck from Hicksville USA

let me guess, you think she's ignorant and insular?
Yet you've gone with the OP of "redneck from Hicksville".

Personally I dislike Sarah Palin on a personal and political level, I also dislike the principles of the Tea Party movement that's providing her with a lot of support.

However...

I do find it quite inspiring that people are banding together and trying to achieve something. They're forcing candidates on the Republican Party that the Republican Party doesn't want. The party wants safe middle of the road candidates that follow the party line that the experts in elections say will win them votes. The Tea Party is saying that principles are more important than power and going for the candidates that they believe in whether they're going to win or not.

And while I might really disagree with they're beliefs and views I've got an awful lot of respect for that.

Politicians over here seem to firmly believe that power is more important than principles and people don't seem to be aware that we can changes things.

We could do with a bit more of the get-up-an-go that's driving the movement that's driving Sarah Palin.

I'm all for get-up-and-go politicians. Shame they have to share the dubious ideals of screechin' Sarah Palin in this instance. Republican conservatism (I mean, the rest are just so darned liberal ) scares the bejesus out of me.

BTW, if Ms Palin looked like Anne Widdecomb, would she even be considered for anything at all?

"I'm all for get-up-and-go politicians."

I don't want it from politicians I want it from us! People seem to think it's up to the politicians to engage with us and it's their value to do so that leads people to not vote.

Wrong.

It's up to us to find our voice and drive the political process. A person unengaged with politics is a person that politicanss won't make any effort to try and please.

The Tea Party appears to understand this, and they are making waves and getting changes by working from the bottom up.

And as said that I respect no matter how much I might dislike what their views are.

The Tea Party is, as far as I can see, guilty of nothing more than pushing every selfish, prejudiced button... appealing to the baser instincts of 'I'm all right Jack' and 'looking after #1'. Spend five minutes listening to any of their supporters and you appreciate what a tolerant, generous society we are and how lucky we are to have things like a health service and a functioning welfare state - even if it isn't perfect. The Neo-Cons were scary enough... the Tea Party lot just need a few swastikas and they're good to go.

She's a nugget and a disgrace to the entire country.

"The Tea Party is, as far as I can see, guilty of nothing more than pushing every selfish, prejudiced button."

As said I don't like their views, I don't like them at all.

But they are demonstrating the power of working from the ground up and showing how politics should work.

Sitting on your bottom waiting for a politician to reach out to you is never going to work. Every bum sat on a chair not voting is one less person that the politicians have to bother about.

However by getting involved they've managed to get their candidates into place and are making their views heard.

And that's a lesson to everybody as to how politics works that shouldn't be lost just because of the nature of their views.

I don't think working from the ground up is necessarily a good thing if all you're playing on is fear, selfishness and prejudice to attract votes. The BNP would be another example of that in action. They say that there's an unwritten rule of message boards that every discussion eventually ends up with a reference to Adolf Hitler :) but it's probably quite an apt comparison in this case. Let's hope the Tea Party remains a fringe minority.

Swastikas and wearing their pointy white hoods openly. At least they could show the courage of their convictions in broad daylight. But they hide behind pseudo-political messages about taxes and big gummint instead. 'Taxes' is code for lock up more black people and don't spend a penny on welfare or schools for them; 'Big Government' opposition is code for the right of every white ignoramus in the South to carry a weapon without interference from anyone or a waiting period or a background check to make sure you're not a nutjob. Big Government is fine and dandy when it comes to building walls to keep Mexicans out and swamping border areas with federal immigration agents.

They are demonstrating the power of the loudest and most strident and best funded voices in a very fractured society and media to appeal to the most ignorant and fearfilled sections of the population, and that has never worked out well for anyone in any country. It is a lesson to everybody, a lesson that unfortunately has been seen before but apparently not apprehended.

"They are demonstrating the power of the loudest and most strident and best funded voices in a very fractured society"

Loudest voices? Yes.

Best funded voices? No.

The "mainstream" Republican Party is better funded than the "Tea Party" movement. However the Tea Party has managed to trump the mainstream party and get their candidates chosen in elections. This is despite those candidates having a distinctly lower chance of winning than the ones backed by the "mainstream".

This is actually proving that you don't need big money to make it and that if you can mass enough people behind you you can change things.

Now they might now be wanting to change things in a way that you or I would want but that's another issue.

It was a brilliant political move by the Tea Baggers to form themselves as a faction within the Repub party rather than as a third party. That wouldn't have had a chance at power.

I have been hoping Sarah Palin gets the nomination as that means Obama would stroll through the election in 2012. She is just not credible outside her constituency.

However my US mate thinks there's so many Democrats who are irritated with Obama that they might stay away from the polls, and that might just let her in.

I think that's a danger, but actually Palin is the one politician who could energise all Dems, and independents, and the few sane Republicans, against her.

Like how the French held their noses to elect someone against Le Pen (was that the Sarkozy election?)

"It was a brilliant political move by the Tea Baggers to form themselves as a faction within the Repub party rather than as a third party. That wouldn't have had a chance at power."

I don't think that they organised or united enough to become a third party.

And as said they're almost deliberately shooting their chances of winning elections in the foot by forcing through candidates that the mainstream party doesn't back and who have, shall we say, "controversial" views on many things.

What were once seen as Democrat seats that could fall are now being seen as pretty safe given the Republican candidate that will now oppose them. A more "middle of the road" Republican could probably have walked the election.

But however much I disagree with them that is what I also like about them, they're putting their principles before power and they would rather loose that power than compromise their principles.

And on a national scale the same thing could very well happen. If the Republican Party were more "mainstream" it would appeal to people disenchanted with Obama. A more extreme "Tea Party" driven Republican Party will force those floating voters right back to Obama.

The talk-radio personalities charlatans who have fueled this 'movement' with their shout shows (Rush Limbaugh, Michael Savage, Bill O'Reilly, Sean Hannity and Glenn Beck, et al) are well funded, and all of them personally have got rich in the process. The Tea Party would be nothing without them.

"The talk-radio personalities charlatans who have fueled this 'movement' with their shout shows (Rush Limbaugh, Michael Savage, Bill O'Reilly, Sean Hannity and Glenn Beck, et al) are well funded, and all of them personally have got rich in the process."

Compared to the big money and big business that backs the Republican Party that's going to be peanuts.

"Mainstream" Republicans do not support or like this movement, it's putting their chances of winning the next election at risk.

And again I quite like that, a big well funded political party is being pushed around by a grass roots movement and is unable to get it's way.

I think it is fantastic and just what America needs. I think she stands a great chance of winning and the Tea Party activists are a symptom of the great disillusion with Washington. She is a ligtning rod for that.

Come on you lot - a sensible straight talking woman and a mother to boot dealing with problems that men caused. This is straight off the MN feminist playbook.

I haven't felt this excited about a female politican since Margaret Thatcher. Most importantly, and a revolutionary idea in conservative USA is that men (and women obvioulsy) will vote for her in their droves and they are not all red neck idiots either.

Go Sarah!

Whenever I think about Sarah Palin I just think of this (skip to 1.37)
I mean really, who is she?

Any development that suggests breaking the middle aged white man must be president mold is a good move imvho.

I don't agree with hardly any of her political or creationist opinions (she's the daughter of a science teacher, ffs, how can she believe some of the things she does?). I accept that she's probably been guilty of duplicity and spin. But... I can't help liking Sarah Palin personally. I wouldn't vote for her (or Ann Widdicombe), but I kind of like them . Palin won't win, her potential constituency is too welded to White Man As President, but she could end up with a Cabinet position (like Hilary Clinton).

I am voting this November for first time in years .

The sponsorship of the radio shows comes from the same trough that feeds the mainstream Republican party. When push comes to shove, neither will bite the hands that feed them.

I am very surprised to see comments that seem to imply that anyone's sex should be a feather in their cap when an election comes around. Sarah Palin is not talking about problems that men in general caused. She is blaming the bogeymen of Washington Insiders, Liberals, even Socialised Medicine. The usual suspects of the Great American Paranoia in other words. Be careful when you wish for someone who essentially peddles a fear-based, fortress message.

The whole 'straight talking' business is such a cliche, it's directly out of some B western.

BeenBeta, I'm assuming you're being sarcastic/provocative?

"When push comes to shove, neither will bite the hands that feed them."

The Tea Party movement is demonstrably pushing candidates onto the Republican Party that are less likely to win elections.

The big money backing the Republican Party want them to win the election. Therefore the Tea Party is not in the interests of that big money.

If big money did have that much control over the movement via the radio shows it would be desperately trying to get the movement under control and stop it forcing unelectable candidates onto the Republican Party.

We do seem to be seeing something "new" here, a movement that is willing to throw it's chance at power out of the window and ignores the interests of it's traditional sponsors.

The "correct" response should be for everyone else to get off their butts and get involved in the same way.

The response I think we will see is the party desperately trying to control this movement and it's sponsors and to get them to pick the candidates that it wants them to pick.

The problem with the Tea Party is that they are fully convinced they will win elections, and once a candidate has been selected to sail under the Republican flag, the same business interests that support the mainstream party will either have to support the Dems (anathema) or go ahead with Plan A and keep on giving money to the 'Republicans', even if they are Tea Partiers.

The GOP will try to shore up its traditional-right base, but the shrieking of the fringe is getting louder and becoming more of a problem for mainstream candidates and for the party (see the recent Karl Rove/ Senate Candidate Christine O'Donnell/ Republican Party upheaval). There will be lots of humble pie served by the tea party, and much handwringing at the results of allowing Dick Cheney free rein for eight years under Bush. The GOP will reap what it sowed under Bush, especially as the positive effects of the medical insurance overhaul are felt, and especially if the US gets tough with the government of Afghanistan and seems to gain the upper hand in even a slight way there. The Republican party will find that you can climb aboard the tiger but then what do you do?

This 'movement' would never have gained the traction it now has unless two black men had attained political prominence in the US, Barack Obama, Democratic US President and Michael Steele, Chairman of the Republican Party. It is based on a bedrock of racism. The arrival almost simultaneously on the political stage of these two black men was like a match to dry brush. It has very little to offer except the kneejerk attitude that Cheney and Rove cynically espoused, and now have seen get completely out of hand. Bet they wish they had got behind McCain for President instead of foisting Palin on him as VP candidate, and leaving him hanging out to dry.

Belfats - no I am really serious.

Palin is what the USA needs to drag it away from the incumbent mindset of grey haired men in Washington. The mass of people do not trust their politicians and they feel they do not understand what the ordinary (wo)man on the street is experiencing in this financial crisis.

Belfast - obviously

"Come on you lot - a sensible straight talking woman and a mother to boot dealing with problems that men caused. This is straight off the MN feminist playbook."

There are so many things wrong with this sentence that I really don't know where to start. I'm afraid "fuck off" may be the only appropriate response.