Maybe Tea Partiers are having more trouble than we realized?

[babylonsister]

http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/archives/individual/2010_06/024460.php


GOOD SEATS, STILL AVAILABLE.... In February, a right-wing group called Tea Party Nation organized its first national event, hosting a convention in Nashville, which wasn't well attended. About 600 attendees showed up -- less than half the total of the inaugural Netroots Nations events. For a "movement" ostensibly poised to change the American political landscape, this was underwhelming. (The attendees who did show up, by the way, gave the impression of being stark raving mad.)

But event organizers decided to give it another shot, scheduling another convention for July. Will this one generate a little more excitement? Not so much.

A National Tea Party Unity convention that was scheduled to be held in Las Vegas in July will now take place in October, according to organizers.

The event, organized by Tea Party Nation (a national Tea Party organization) and Free America (a conservative non-profit group) and other organizations, will still be held at the Palazzo Las Vegas Resort. But Tea Party Nation founder Judson Phillips confirmed to CNN Saturday that the date is being moved from July 15-17 to October in order to hold the event closer to the midterm elections.

"We concluded it would more advantageous to hold the convention in the middle of October just prior to the November elections," says Phillips in a statement.

At first blush, that spin may seem plausible. Maybe the far-right effort will be better off if activists leave their local communities a few weeks before the election, and head to a Las Vegas resort. I wouldn't think so, but organizers didn't ask me.

The more interesting angle to this, though, is what the report didn't mention -- the "National Tea Party Unity" convention is being postponed just two weeks before it was scheduled to kick off. I'm not an expert in conference management, but it seems to me that a national group doesn't organize a major gathering at a Las Vegas resort, lining up speakers and guests, and then scrap the whole thing two weeks before it begins unless no one was planning to show up.

Maybe Tea Partiers are having more trouble than we realized?

—Steve Benen

[SpiralHawk]

1. Perhaps peeps got a clue that they were being manipulated by RepubliCorporatistas?

Maybe they got a clue that they were just being coldly and crassly USED as Stooge Sockpuppets, enticed to drink Kool Aid and then to oppose vociferously their own best interests? That's a bona fide republicon tradition.

It could happen. Clues could be gotten. Anything is possible.

[hobbit709]

3. Most of them couldn't find a clue

if it slapped them upside the head with a two by four and stuck to them with superglue.

[Mnemosyne]

9. The lemmings are too broke to attend. jmho n/t

[SpiralHawk]

16. Broke after they voted Republicon-TeaBagger = against their own interests

If they want someone to blame they can take a good look in the mirror.

[Mnemosyne]

17. Exactly. Hope their peabrains can make the connection, but

seriously doubt it possible for many of them.

[lonestarnot]

24. No hope for dat!

:rofl:

[DFW]

2. I think I know what tipped them off it was time to cancel

When they realized that the number of Fox Noise staff there was about triple the number of paying
attendees, they figured it might be time to reassess whether not not the time was "right (no pun
intended)" for their little (emphasis allowed) event.

[NoPasaran]

4. Wonderful timing!

As all of us who've actually worked on elections know, the last month before E-Day is a blur of organizing your GOTV. No time to drop everything to listen to more speeches.

[gratuitous]

18. Precisely

If they're planning to actually do something in the general election this year, October is pretty late in the game. This looks like an admission of abject failure.

[datasuspect]

5. why do you think it was removed from the infotainment cycle?

they were never meant to be cast in a negative light.

[Ian David]

6. My god, that/s Simchat Torah! n/t

[proud2BlibKansan]

7. Netroots is July 22-25 in Vegas

Maybe try didn't want to proceed the larger event for progressives?

[proud2BlibKansan]

14. Oops 'precede'

LOL

[sufrommich]

8. Moving it to October gives the right more time to whip up

a new and improved false outrage. Obviously the old false outrage isn't working.

[Kip Humphrey]

10. Bastille Day, I tell you! It was too close to Bastille Day!

[AnArmyVeteran]

11. Couldn't they use their Social Security checks to get there?

[Robert DAH Bruce]

12. It was probably an internal thing

Like, say, the voices in their heads told 'em the time just wasn't quite right.

[donco6]

13. Have you ever been to LAV in July?

I'll bet those chain-smoking, RV-driving teabaggers have. Whoever picked that date was an idiot.

[SunnySong]

19. Yeah I was going to point that out as well. It's like those global warming summits

that always seem to be scheduled in Chicago in February

[donco6]

23. Yep.

The thing is, they don't even need to advertise a convention or book a hotel at all. Just get the Flamingo to offer $2 buffet night on a Friday/Saturday and you'll have a caravan of RVs from Las Vegas to LA.

[BlueIdaho]

15. Tea Party movement runs out of steam.

The infighting is growing and the ranks of exploitable older disenfranchised Americans is shrinking. The movement is now composed of the 18 per centers - the racist hate filled lunatic fringe. Meanwhile, Dick Armey, the half term governor of Alaska, and a small circle of conservative lobbyists are trying to perform CPR on the corpse because it's hard to walk away when there's still money on the table.

Stick a fork in it, it's done.

Edit - typo

[Hannah Bell]

20. that's been reported in the blogosphere for some time. low attendance at their events.

not the groundswell being reported by some folks at DU.

[Puzzler]

21. The one thing I really can't stand about the Teahadists is the amount of coverage they get

600 in Nashville, right? OK then, how about the MSM covering EVERY political meeting in the country that gets at least 600 people in attendance?

[opihimoimoi]

22. Seems that way....I think some...may be more, are feeling the pain of being

LAUGHED AT

Rachel Maddow, Keith Olberman, etc are killing them with TRUTH HUMOR and Good Ole CLOREX...

And a few I bet...like Ed Shultz...have actually turned liberal

and thats because Liberalism go hand in hand with Reason, Truth, and Sanity...they being void in the GOP/Baggers.