The Tea Party's "Nixon in 60/Dean Scream" moment?

Note: This isn't about the Tea Party's politics. Not in the least.

This about that...response. The one where she didn't seem to know where the camera was. I'm presuming she looked straight into the Web cam - which was a huge mistake. Most people will not flock to the Web cam. They'll watch it on CNN and later on Fox - as I did, to see if Bachmann seriously missed both cameras. Which she did.

Again, not the politics...but the moment. The Tea Party picked her - or she picked herself - to deliver a response that I'm guessing no one much paid attention to because well, she looked like she was on a local TV newscast in the 475th market, trying to find a moving camera. Odd.

 

I think the TP itself is too loosely affiliated to be sunk by something like this. But "not looking at the camera" will be Bachmann's "I invented the Internet" or "You can see Alaska from my house."

 

I'm also pretty sure she said Iwo Jama.

 

Thanks goodness it was only on CNN. That limits the potential audience a lot.

 

Do you think Fox knew it was going to be a train wreck and that's why they didn't air it?

 

There were two cameras?

Dumb. Bad logistics. Though, whe probably would have looked lost either way.

But, I don't think this kills the Tea Party. She's not the leader. She's trying to anoint herself the leader, but, especially after tonight, I don't think it's working.

 

Oh, they aired it later. It wasn't any better there.

FWIW - and, again, this isn't politics - I think Fox execs saw it and wanted to air it. I think if it hadn't been a trainwreck, it wouldn't have been shown. I think there's a faction of that network that's very interested in seeing the Tea Party fail after it co-opted the party's anger platform to secure ratings.

BTW, as a pure speaking presence, Ryan caught some momentum in the second half of his chat. Whether the content of what he was saying is worth anything is for people to decide themselves, but he got the cadence. He took a breath or two.

 

She had to have been looking at the teleprompter. Why that wasn't in front of the camera, I don't know.

 

Has there been a single Tea Party event since the elections? I figure the money people behind it figure it did its job, they've got their lobbyists in key positions as Congressional staffers and their work is done. They have real power now - no sense getting a crowd together to make it look like they are unhappy with House.

 

I'm ready for it to go away. It already cost the republicans a couple senate seats and even though I don't really think there is much of a chance of a republican unseating Obama next year, a divided republican party would guarantee that.

 

The Tea Party contribution to the Republicans was Scott Brown. Everything else was gravy.

The response to response speech was a disaster. Whoever did her makeup made he look like a raccoon.