WASHINGTON: This just in – Sarah Palin has agreed to deliver the Tea Party’s keynote speech at the movement’s first national convention next month.
It will be Palin’s first political speech in months, and The Washington Independent’s David Weigel thinks it’s significant that she chose the Tea Party event after twice passing on chances to address the well-established Conservative Political Action Committee, or CPAC.
The Feb. 6 appearance in Nashville gives Palin the opportunity to “take up the mantle that has been waiting for her as the movement’s most visible and popular hero,” said The Atlantic’s Chris Good.
Palin’s decision to speak at the National Tea Party Convention makes sense. It’s no secret that she has emerged as a darling of conservatives, and her appearance there will undoubtedly be highly anticipated.
And, although other conservative luminaries will speak at the convention, Palin is by far the event’s biggest attraction, and she’ll take center stage at a time when the Tea Party is showing it can influence election results.
The Tea Party is also becoming a factor in the Texas governor’s contest. And public opinion polls indicate it is more popular than either the Republican or Democratic parties.
This despite the fact that it isn’t a formal political party, and some members of the loosely organized confederation of big-government foes are wary of turning it into one.
Dan Riehl is one conservative blogger who’s not cheering Palin’s decision to address the Tea Party convention. He called it “the beginning of the end” of the grassroots movement and predicted the Tea Party will become like other money-driven partisan groups.
This may prove to be true, especially as rumors say she may be paid as much as $100,000 for her speech at the Tea Party Convention.
Quite a contrast to the ex-governor’s snub to speak at the CPAC convention that, according to it directors, would not “pay honorarium, travel or hotel expenses for any speakers.”
Some now say the Tea Party event has had many people suspecting that Palin’s decision was financially driven. Tickets to her speech are running a pricey $349, while tickets to the entire convention cost $549.
