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

Do you think he wins re-election? If not, who wins?

 

I'd bet my meager life savings that it'd be over 8 percent. And the real, non-cooked rate will be about the same as it is now.

 

It will definitely be over 8 percent. Probably more like 10 percent.

I've read a lot about this, and one interesting theory I've heard is that the high unemployment is directly linked to the housing bubble crash. So many jobs were tied to the housing industry - particularly in states like Nevada - that unemployed workers are largely trained for jobs that no longer exist.

 

Another way of putting that would be that the housing bubble was another in a series of debt-fueled fantasies that temporarily covered up the structural problems in our economy.

 

It seems like the only people I know who pay attention to all these tea party rallies, etc., are liberals in various degrees of outrage. Most of the Republicans I know don't give a darn about what someone like Bachman or O'Donnell has to say. I know I could care less what the "tea party" has to say -- it's too disjointed and encompasses too many degrees of radicality. Who's in charge? It may end up becoming just another label like RINO or progressive that simply indicates a certain set of beliefs that still operate within a two-party structure.

I know it's more fun for the liberals to act like the GOP has been taken over by the tea party, but the tea party is too disjointed to accomplish that. It's more a case of more marginal individuals becoming more involved in the political process and achieving somewhat more influence.

 

Liberals are not the ones who put on their own "Tea Party response."

I don't completely disagree with you, though. There have always been these subsets within the two political parties. But I don't think this is about "liberals" giving the Tea Party too much attention. It is about the de facto Tea Party heads, like Beck and Palin, being skillful rabble-rousers with a forum.

 

Well-said. The Republicans should not ignore the Tea Party members, but to think they've taken over the party is absurd. Just because Palin grabs all the headlines doesn't mean she's the leader of the party.

O'Donnell is a nutjob. While I don't dislike Bachmann, I think she's over her head.

 

Everyone knows that Rush Limbaugh is the leader of the party

As far as Bachmann goes, she lost me when she went on "Hardball" and started demanding House committees on the "un-American associations" of media members and Barack Obama.

Maybe Darrell Issa can do that in his new job as head of the House Oversight Committee.

Right after he finishes his workshop on "How to Hotwire a Car."

 

Don't tell us it's a fringe movement. Tea Partiers are getting GOP nominations. Someone is voting for them.

 

If not for the Tea Party movement, the Republican party would be in tatters. Michael Steele was a joke, and the party operation itself is in the hole by $20 million. The Tea Party gets the attention, while most of the rest of the Republicans ride the wave. I know that Michelle Bachmann's most important reason for the Tea Party response was to promote Michelle Bachmann, but that there was a separate Tea Party response is telling, in that the Tea Partiers are keeping their foot in the Republican door only as long as they need to in order to get elected and build power. Otherwise, they would just form a third party and be done with it -- and perhaps get more votes than Republicans in a lot of places.

 

What is Michelle Bachmann's end game here?

 

To run for president as the official Tea Party candidate, I'm sure.