Another Messaging Problem For Democrats: 71% of Americans Think That It’s Important That Republicans Should Listen to TEA Party

It looks like the Democrats have another messaging problem. Despite the left’s attempt at trivializing and demonizing the TEA party for the past year or so, 71% of all Americans still believe that it is important for the Republicans to listen to the grassroots movement, according to a new Gallup poll:

About 7 in 10 national adults, including 88% of Republicans, say it is important that Republican leaders in Congress take the Tea Party movement's positions and objectives into account as they address the nation's problems. …

Although few Democrats (6%) are supporters of the Tea Party or even have a favorable view of it (11%), more than half say it is important that the Republican Party take the Tea Party’s positions into account. Why this is the case is unclear, although Democrats may simply feel that the opposing party should pay attention to all of its constituencies.

Perhaps underscoring the same principle, Republicans overwhelming feel their leaders should take the Tea Party’s positions into account, even though barely half are self-identified as Tea Party supporters."

This poll is especially telling, if you consider when the poll was taken. Ed Morrissey explains:

I’d somehow doubt that Democrats are really all that concerned about whether the GOP listens to “all its constituencies.” Their party leaders and the media spend most of their time sneering at the “teabaggers,” and dismissing them as cranks, or worse. The flip side to this analysis is that 44% of Democrats would think it unimportant for politicians to pay attention to their constituents, which seems unlikely to be the case.

“New survey” is somewhat relative. While Gallup published these results today, the survey itself was taken between January 14 and 16, within a few days after the shooting in Tucson and the media’s rush to smear the Tea Party as an unindicted co-conspirator. If those numbers were ever going to suffer, it would have been that week. Yet majorities in all party affiliations think that their ideas deserve important consideration, including 53% of Democrats, 72% of independents, and 88% of Republicans.

So, all of the left’s demagoguing and their attempt at convicting Palin and the TEA party for the Tucson Tragedy in the court of public opinion has fallen on deaf ears. Hopefully, the Democrats will stop their pointless finger-pointing, but I doubt that will ever happen. They’re hoping that if they repeat it long enough that people will eventually start to believe it, but they don’t seem to be having any luck.

Reid: TEA Party Will Disappear, After Economy Improves

This came out yesterday, but I was out-and-about and on my phone all day. I couldn’t get to a PC, where I could pull up the embed link to add to the post. Fortunately, I was, finally, able to pull the embed link, once I got home.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) will be on Meet the Press tomorrow, and part of the interview has already been released, where he made a very interesting prediction about the future of the TEA Party:



Under normal circumstances, a third-party, independent movements do tend to fizzle over time, see Perotmania back in the mid-90’s. However, if Bernacke is right and it takes 4-5 years for us to see real improvement in the unemployment numbers, that could give the grassroots conservative movment some time to grow roots and become a sustainable lobby for many years to come.

Saying this will only further enrage those that are already upset at how he has governed this country, the TEA Party, and ensure that they have the desire to stick around longer. There was nothing to be gained for him to antagonize them. So, why did he do it? What was he thinking? He, arrogantly, was trying to trivialize them in the eyes of the electorate, but more people are sympathetic to the issues that are important to the TEA Party than are not. So, as long as the issues of high deficits, big government, high federal spending, and high unemployment are important, the TEA Party will be an important force to be reckoned with in the American political scene.

CNN/TEA Party Express to Join Forces For Putting Together Republican Primary Debate

As a showing of how influential the TEA Party movement has become in everyday politics, CNN and the Tea Party Express will hold a Republican primary debate next year on Labor Day:

CNN is teaming up with the Tea Party Express for a first-of-its-kind presidential primary debate, both organizations announced Friday. The Tea Party debate, featuring 2012 Republican presidential candidates, is scheduled for Labor Day week 2011. It will take place in Tampa, Florida – the site of the 2012 Republican National Convention.

Since the spring of 2009, the Tea Party movement has been increasingly vocal in advocating for less government spending, lower taxes and shrinking the deficit. The Tea Party debate will place specific emphasis on those issues.

Tea Party Express Chairman Amy Kremer talked to CNN about what activists hope to hear from Republican presidential candidates. "We want to hear what their ideas are – what their thoughts are – on turning this economy back around and getting us on a sound economic footing, paying down some of our deficit, getting a balanced budget, and reining in the spending," Kremer said.

Kremer added, "We've proven ourselves in this last campaign, election cycle of 2010, we're the only Tea Party group that engaged in election activity. And we got involved because we simply believed that if we're going to affect change we're going to do it at the ballot box. And the tea party movement has proven how powerful it is."

Sam Feist, CNN Political Director and Vice President of Washington-based programming said, "The Tea Party movement is a fascinating, diverse, grassroots force that already has drastically changed the country's political landscape."

This could be huge for the next presidential race. It’ll help to frame the debate to issues that are important to the TEA Party and those that are sympathic to many of their concerns.

Dallas: Anti-Obamacare Protesters Attract At Least Quadruple Pro-Obamacare MoveOn Protesters at Rally

MoveOn.org member and spokeswoman, Paula Anderson, found a big surprise when her and her band of around 30 merry protesters showed up at Senator Cornyn's Dallas office to pressure the Republican Texas Senator to back Obamacare:

Local MoveOn.org members had penciled in on today's schedule a protest in front of Senator John Cornyn's Spring Valley Road office, during which they had hoped to pressure the senator to support President Barack Obama's public health care legislation.

But when Paula Anderson, a MoveOn.org member and spokeswoman, showed up at 11:30 a.m., she found another contingent had beat her to the proverbial punch: A large number of Dallas Tea Party members were already set up, voicing their opposition to the proposal. Anderson was stunned: "We really did not expect them to show up." She estimated the crowd at about 130. "From our perspective we took names of everyone there, and we had about 30 people," she told Unfair Park. "And I would assume they maybe had 100."

Exactly how many each side had is an open debate as there isn't any official head count. The general feeling is MoveOn had somewhere around 20-30 protesters, and the TEA partiers had 200-300 protesters. Obviously, it varies on which side you ask.

In the grand scheme of things, the exact number is irrelevant. The main point is MoveOn barely mustered a small fraction of support than the TEA party coalition could. According to Rasmussen, support for Obama has fallen under 50% for the first time in his presidency. Support for his actual policies are even lower. His honeymoon with America is long over. Now, people are waking up from thinking they elected another Bill Clinton to realizing they, actually, elected another Jimmy Carter.

May 30: Seattle Tea Party Leader Heads Funeral for Health Care Protesting Obama's Health Care Plan

From one of the founders of the Tea Party Revolution, Liberty Belle aka Keli Carender, comes the Funeral for Health Care:

Do you get a sinking feeling (or rising nausea, or both) when you read about some giant, collectivist march or rally that just happened in your city, and you did nothing to show your opposition? Do you wish that you could go back in time and at least show up so that your point of view is represented and the other side does not speak for you? Do you hope that someday people will stand up and show the world the immorality of stealing from one person to give to another under the guise of "the greater good," which basically amounts to buying votes?

WELL HERE'S YOUR CHANCE!!!The unions, socialist and communist groups, and special interests are getting together to have a nationwide rally to support Obama's vision* of single payer health care on May 30th. Unlike all the years prior to this date, we are finally organized enough to make a stand against them! This is why we gathered email addresses at the Tea Parties! So please join us, on May 30th, 2009, to stand against socialized medicine, and attend the Funeral for Health Care.

Back in 1994, Hillarycare was defeated largely because of rallies like the one in Seattle that started the backlash that defeated healthcare under Clinton. I agree with Michelle that I hope that this will lead to universal healthcare being defeated one more time.

Garofalo Echos Liberal Talking Down Points, Fallacies: TEA Protesters Stupid "Racists", Limbaugh Snub That Wasn't

Ya, I know this story is a few days old, but I've been avoiding it because I didn't want to give Janeane Garofalo the satisfaction, but it has blown up, probably rightfully so. Now, I'm forced to respond.

Thursday was a big day for Janeane. First, she had an interview with the "Village Voice" where she took a shot at Limbaugh. Then, she was on the Olbermann's show calling those that attended the TEA parties everything but a child of God.

Let's start with the fabrication that was the Village interview. While she was answering questions about how she can stand to be on a show that is run by a "right wing nutjob", she threw in a jab at Limbaugh and threw one at Lynne Cheney just for kicks:

Now, having said that, when Rush Limbaugh visited the set, and when Lynne Cheney visited the set, I refused to have my picture taken with them or meet them or anything. I didn't want to make a scene out of it and not even go meet them in front of people. When somebody came to me privately and said 'do you want to meet them', I said absolutely not. But I would never have made a big show of it and embarrassed people who worked there. Not that they were interested in meeting me. And, to tell you the truth, I doubt that Lynne Cheney even knew who I was...

However, Limbaugh came out later that day and said:

"The last time I visited the set of "24," [Ms.] Garofalo had not been hired to appear in the series. She was not there, she was not a member of the cast the last time I visited. I wouldn't have wanted to meet her anyway.

"The last time I visited the set, Kim Raver was still in the cast and CTU was the primary 'location' of the show. This current season, seven, has been in the can since last summer or fall and I have been nowhere near the "24" set for any shoots for this season, which is this lunatic's [Ms. Garofalo's] first season,"

As Garofalo demonstrated nicely, liberals will often lie just to take a shot at the right.

As a side note example of her lunatic thought process, she said that Al Franken was "qualified" to be senator. That had me busting a gut.

Now, on to the Olbermann interview. Janeane topped the whoppers that she told in the Village interview with some tall tales that makes her last bit of fiction look like a little white lie. She berates the people who went to the "tea parties" to protest over-taxation and out of control government spending:

You know, there's nothing more interesting than seeing a bunch of racists become confused and angry at a speech they're not quite certain what he's saying. It sounds right and then it doesn't make sense. Which, let's be very honest about what this is about. It's not about bashing Democrats, it's not about taxes, they have no idea what the Boston tea party was about, they don't know their history at all. This is about hating a black man in the White House. This is racism straight up. That is nothing but a bunch of teabagging rednecks. And there is no way around that.

So, according to Ms. Garafalo, we're not only stupid but also racists. What proof does she have that they're all stupid white power racists?

None, zip, zero, zilch.

She never gives any proof just accusations. There wasn't one racist comment made by a speaker at one of the hundreds of rallies. There were no signs that used racial slurs. The only ones that were over the that had Obama linked to Hitler, but those were very few. The great majority didn't come close the offensiveness that the lefty protesters leveled at Bush. There were anti-Bush signs that linked Bush to Hitler and the Devil at the same time.

She followed the liberal way of thinking that if you disagree with someone of another race, you must be a racist. That kind of logic is illogical and groundless.

She went on to echo another favorite talking down point the left loves to throw at the right. She said that all conservatives have a neurological problem.

She, also, she misrepresented the attendance at the protests. She said that there were "literally tens of people" at the "parties". I think Janeane needs to retake 2nd grade math. There were around 300,000 people at the events nationwide.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
http://washingtontimes.com/news/2009/apr/19/picket-garofalo-lies-about-limbaugh/
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
http://blogs.villagevoice.com/music/archives/2009/04/interview_janea.php
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
http://www.newsbusters.org/blogs/noel-sheppard/2009/04/16/garofalo-tea-partiers-are-all-racists-who-hate-black-president
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Greenville TEA Party Has 10,000 Attend, Pro-Stimulus Rally Has 200 Attend Same Day, Same City

Here's a letter sent to Michelle Malkin from someone in Greenville, SC describing the scene during the tea parties. What I found really interesting was how unbalanced the pro and anti-porkulus rallies were. (H/T) Michelle Malkin

Michelle C. sums it all up very well here.

Update: From reader Michelle C.:

Hey Michelle, I’m a big fan of your site. I noticed that your article about the Greenville tea party states that there were 3000 people there. I live in Greenville, and last night on the 6:00 news, when the party had just begun, WYFF stated that the crowd was around 5000 people. On the 11:00 news, WYFF stated that the police count was around 10,000 people for the tea party. I thought you might enjoy hearing how large the crowd really was.

Also, here’s the funny thing– the state Democratic Party decided to hold a “Save Our Schools” rally at the same time (6:00 - 7:30) on the OTHER SIDE of the Bi-lo Center. The rally was to protest Mark Sanford for not taking the stimulus money for schools. According to WYFF 11:00 news, around 100 people showed up. According to the Democratic Party, around 200 people showed up (see Greenvilleonline.com).

10,000 to 200. Um...Sorry, Obama! We won!

Will the Democrats ever see that the people aren't on their side this time and reverse the damage they've done?

No, they'll probably just send the FBI after everyone who disagrees with them for being "extremists".

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
http://michellemalkin.com/2009/04/18/another-republican-booed-by-tea-party-protesters/
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
http://www.greenvilleonline.com/article/20090418/NEWS03/304180002&referrer=FRONTPAGECAROUSEL
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Tea Parties Will Return July 4th Says Lead Organizer

Rebecca Wales, lead organizer of the tax day protests in Washington, D.C., tells the Huffington Post that the tea party movement has only just begun. Additional tea parties are already in the works for Independence Day.

Tea parties are here to stay no matter how much the left mocks us.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/04/15/tea-party-movement-plans_n_187393.html
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Fox News Soars Ahead CNN, MSNBC's Failed Comedy Routine

People actually want news instead of a Andrew "Dice" Clay inspired SNL skit. Who knew?

How big (was FNC's win)? Glenn Beck’s audience at 5 p.m. was bigger than the combined audiences for Olbermann’s and Maddow’s primetime “teabagging” jamboree. And he was still only the fourth-biggest show on FNC yesterday.

They broke down the results by demographics a bit.

An even more amazing stat from the table above: The only hour in which Fox didn’t beat all three other networks combined was 7 p.m., and even then it barely missed.

Your Honor, this is Exhibit C in the investigation of why the old media is dying.

The overall numbers that the Drudge Report announced were as following:

FOX RATINGS SURGE ON PROTEST COVERAGE8-11 PM ET
FOXNEWS 3,390,000
MSNBC 1,210,000
CNN 1,070,000
CNN HEADLINE 909,000

FOXNEWS O'REILLY 3,980,000
FOXNEWS HANNITY 3,239,000
FOXNEWS GRETA 2,947,000
FOXNEWS BECK 2,740,000
FOXNEWS BAIER 2,401,000
FOXNEWS SHEP 2,185,000
COMEDY DAILY SHOW 1,777,000
MSNBC OLBERMANN 1,499,000
COMEDY COLBERT 1,446,000
CNNHN GRACE 1,336,000
CNN KING 1,292,000
MSNBC MADDOW 1,149,000
CNN COOPER 1,021,000

It's sad when Comedy Central's "The Daily Show" beats every MSNBC and CNN show. I guess Jon Stewart was funnier. The comedy routine of Anderson, Shuster, Maddow, and co needs a great deal of practicing and polishing up their jokes before they try another stab at comedy.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
http://hotair.com/archives/2009/04/16/ratings-blowout-fox-news-scores-big-with-tea-party-coverage/
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
http://www.mediabistro.com/tvnewser/ratings/the_scoreboard_wednesday_april_15_114271.asp?c=rss
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
http://drudgereport.com

Rep. Schakowsky (D-Ill) Attacks TEA Protestors, Few Hours Later: Karma Attacks Schakowsky

"The ‘tea parties’ being held today by groups of right-wing activists, and fueled by FOX News Channel, are an effort to mislead the public about the Obama economic plan that cuts taxes for 95 percent of Americans and creates 3.5 million jobs," (Rep. Jan) Schakowsky (D-Ill)said in a statement.

"It’s despicable that right-wing Republicans would attempt to cheapen a significant, honorable moment of American history with a shameful political stunt," she added. "Not a single American household or business will be taxed at a higher rate this year. Made to look like a grassroots uprising, this is an Obama bashing party promoted by corporate interests, as well as Republican lobbyists and politicians.”

Again, Jan it's not just about the taxes. It's about the bailout, entitlement, and deficit-spending culture infesting Washington and all other levels of government over the past few decades.

In addition, ask the lower 95% that smokes, if their taxes have been cut. That tax increase will be just the beginning if Pelosi, Reid, and Obama get their way.

Also, I bet you loved the anti-Bush rallies supported by socialists and anti-war terrorists like Bill Ayres like the one CNN's Susan Roesgen covered back in 2006.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
http://media.eyeblast.org/newsbusters/graphics/print.png
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

It didn't take long for karma to bite her back. A few hours later this came out:

CHICAGO (AP) — The husband of an Illinois congresswoman pleaded guilty Wednesday to tax violations and bank fraud for writing rubber checks and failing to collect withholding tax from an employee. Robert Creamer, a political consultant married to four-term U.S. Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D), could face four years in prison on the two felony counts when he is sentenced Dec. 21.

What is it they say "karma's a bitch"?

Also, what is up with the Chicago Democratic political scence and corruption? Another one in trouble with the law. As rampant as corruption is in Chicago, it is getting scarier and scarier to know that is wher our president is from.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2005-08-31-congresswoman-husband_x.htm
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Unofficial "Tea Party" Attendence Nationwide: Over 260,000

But, based on news accounts of 306 "Tea Party" protests in different cities across the country yesterday, I get a cumulative attendance of 262,025, with a fair number of (probably mostly smaller) events still unaccounted for.

That's a very strong showing and one that Obama shouldn't be "unaware" of it existence. The left made fun of those in attendence and the lack in numbers in the Northeast where it was raining, but most of the parties had a significant showing in the thousands.

They can downplay and mock all they want for now, but if we stay on course, we will make a difference.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
http://www.fivethirtyeight.com/2009/04/tea-parties-appear-to-draw-at-least.html
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

CNN Reporter Misses Spendapalooza Forest For Tax Trees

Objective CNN Reporter to Chicago Tea Party Attendee: ‘Why Are You Complaining? Don’t You Know Obama Gave Your State Billions in the Stimulus!?”

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
http://www.redstate.com/jeff_emanuel/2009/04/15/objective-cnn-reporter-to-chicago-tea-party-attendee-why-are-you-complaining-dont-you-know-obama-gave-your-state-billions-in-the-stimulus/

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

My Thoughts

It's not like Obama took it out of his own pocket. He took $ from my kids and grandkids to waste on meaningless pork projects.

As Emanuel pointed out, it's not just about taxes. It's about the misuse of our tax dollars by both Democrats and Republicans.

The bailouts that were started by Bush and expanded by Obama was just the start. The porkulus bill that will only stimulate the growth of the Democratic party with no real help for the economy was beyond atrocious.

It's about the national debt doubling in the Bush years and on pace to triple during the Obama years assuming he's re-elected.