Wait...what? That must be a typo, Chris. You must mean "Mitt Romney Shows the Tea Party's LACK of Power" right? No, I mean Mittens shows the Tea Party's power.
Rewind back four years. The Republican establishment was doing their darndest to cram John McCain down our throats because it was his turn. As today, there was a "conservative alternative" candidate. Do you remember his name? Give up? It was Mitt Romney.
For the record, I'm not saying that Romney is a hardcore conservative. He isn't. He's more of a Rockefeller Republican. That being said, he's a whole lot more conservative than John McCain, or Bob Dole, or George H.W. Bush or any other "it's their turn" candidates that we've endured as Republicans. That doesn't mean I'm backing Romney. I've endorsed Newt Gingrich as a blogger and I stand by that endorsement. I do believe Newt is far more conservative than Mitt.
But let's consider the GOP of 2008. Romney was pushed aside in favor of McCain, a part of the Good Old Boys Club of the GOP, largely because Mitt was too darn conservative for their tastes. He wasn't a Washington insider, he was a businessman with four years of politics on his resume. I'm not ashamed to say that in 2008 I cast my primary vote for Mitt Romney because he was the most conservative choice available when my state's primary arrived.
Do you think the establishment candidate in 2012 would be Mitt Romney if the 2010 Tea Party revolution hadn't happened? No way. It'd probably be someone like the joke of jokes candidate, Jon Huntsman. Today the moderate (which remember is a relative term) Establishment Candidate is the guy who was the conservative alternative four years ago. Why? Because the Tea Party has moved the GOP to the right. Not far enough, by a mile, mind you, but still, to the right.
The Drive-By Media is going to tell you the Tea Party is dead. They're wrong. The Tea Party is alive and well. Mitt Romney being the "establishment candidate" for the GOP proves it.
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