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purejuicePolitico claims, with some good quotes and Pew poll stats, and some really stupid quotes (STFU, Cindy Sheehan), that the Tea Partiers are pretty much a figment of the chattering classes created by the NYT "obsession" with the exotic.
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0410/36185.html
It's always amusing to piss on the NYT, but it pretty much is not a definitive way of gauging the existence and agency of a political (or any other kind of) phenomenon. The only real zingers -- and they're actual facts, unenlightening as compared to Real Facts -- in the story are the reminders of similar backlash against Reagan and Clinton [oh yeah?], the [estimated] low numbers of TP protesters, the Pew polls [of 2000 people] showing that 60 per cent of Americans had never heard of the TP, reference without credit, as I recall, to the NYT poll showing that they're mainly mainstream Republicans -- and a quote from a Rep political operative saying it's the usual suspects experiencing, explicitly, Obama freakout. We all know what that means: a black man giving billions to Wall Street, a bipartisan gesture if there ever was one, which pissed everybody off. David Remnick's new bio of Obama says this is his specialty, the deeply conciliatory/compromised gesture.
In any case, I'm with Politico, and you read it here first. I'd say it is the blogosphere's Gotcha ethos which is piqueing the interest of the media, and keeping the TP trolls alive.
Next?
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0410/36185.html
It's always amusing to piss on the NYT, but it pretty much is not a definitive way of gauging the existence and agency of a political (or any other kind of) phenomenon. The only real zingers -- and they're actual facts, unenlightening as compared to Real Facts -- in the story are the reminders of similar backlash against Reagan and Clinton [oh yeah?], the [estimated] low numbers of TP protesters, the Pew polls [of 2000 people] showing that 60 per cent of Americans had never heard of the TP, reference without credit, as I recall, to the NYT poll showing that they're mainly mainstream Republicans -- and a quote from a Rep political operative saying it's the usual suspects experiencing, explicitly, Obama freakout. We all know what that means: a black man giving billions to Wall Street, a bipartisan gesture if there ever was one, which pissed everybody off. David Remnick's new bio of Obama says this is his specialty, the deeply conciliatory/compromised gesture.
In any case, I'm with Politico, and you read it here first. I'd say it is the blogosphere's Gotcha ethos which is piqueing the interest of the media, and keeping the TP trolls alive.
Next?
