Los tea partiers adoran a Palin pero esperan a otro candidato

Tras dedicar los últimos meses a hacer un seguimiento del Tea Party, incluyendo entrevistas con sus activistas, Jon Ward (The Daily Caller) llega a la conclusión de que la historia de amor entre estos y Palin no tiene que traducirse necesariamente en un respaldo del movimiento a las ambiciones presidenciales de la ex Gobernadora de Alaska. Una gran parte de los tea partiers (mayoría según Ward) simpatizan con Palin pero no la ven presidenciable.

Palin a hero to many in Tea Party but not their pick for President

(...) “I like Palin,” said Alan Reasin, a 65-year old retired nuclear power plant engineer from Conowingo, Md, holding a large “Don’t Tread on Me” flag outside the U.S. Capitol Monday at a small rally featuring Tea Party favorites Sen. Jim DeMint, South Carolina Republican, and Rep. Michele Bachmann, Minnesota Republican.

But Reasin, who is on the steering committee of the Cecil County Tea Party Patriots, said he thought Gen. David Petraeus, the decorated military official who commands U.S. forces in Afghanistan, should run for president.

As for Palin, Reasin said, “She’s got too many negatives, not for me, but for too many people. So I think she’s better off on the outside looking in.”

(...) Brenda Tackett, a white-haired retiree from Bristol, Tennessee, traveled to the rally Monday with 29 others on a bus paid for by Americans for Prosperity, a Washington-based conservative group. She held a hand-painted sign that read, “Listen to the People.”

Tackett said Palin might make a good vice president.

“She’s a very smart lady, a very good speaker, but being a woman I think they’ll be after her tooth and nail,” Tackett said. “I don’t think she would hold the main ticket … I think it’s going to take someone a little more powerful than Sarah, that has more connections, that will be able to carry the country with more supporters.”

(...) Katherine McArthur, a 58-year old retired real estate agent and mother of two from Newport Beach, Calif., flew to Washington for the Beck rally and showed up 48 hours early, sleeping two nights on the Mall with nothing more than a camping chair.

“I guess I don’t have confidence in her, at this point in her career,” McArthur said of Palin.

Her friend, Linda Lumsden, a 58-year old skincare specialist also from Newport Beach, was more forceful in her opinion.

“I would like to see someone else emerge. I think she’s too divisive,” Lumsden said. “It’s good for her to be part of the party. I have nothing against her. But I just think a leader has to be more articulate than she is. I just don’t think that person’s emerged yet.”

Adam Washburn, a 47-year old plumber from Oceanside, Calif., also slept on the Mall overnight in a camping chair to save his spot up front at the Beck rally.

“I could support Sarah Palin, but I don’t think she is the one. VP yes, president not so much,” Washburn said in an e-mail this week. “Unfortunately I think the media beat her up too much, and I think she can be more valuable doing other things for the conservative movement.”

“I’m not sure if we have seen the one who needs to run. It has to be someone who can articulate the conservative message like a Buckley or Reagan,” Washburn said. “We have time to find someone. I do like Chris Christie, and Marco Rubio.”

(...) Ryan Rhodes, chairman of the Iowa Tea Party Patriots, said that if the Iowa caucuses were held today, Huckabee would win. Palin, he said, has strong support and would come in second to Huckabee. But he also said many in the grassroots are unsure about the former Alaska governor, based on her performance in the 2008 election

(...) A national Tea Party organizer who talks to activists around the country said he sees the same dynamic everywhere when it comes to Palin.

“Lot’s love her on a personal level, and as a conservative icon, but I haven’t heard widespread support for her as a presidential candidate,” he said. “I think the candidates who will be on top in 2012 have yet to really emerge from the pack … Folks have interest in Mike Pence and of course [Sen. Jim] DeMint. I would guess that if asked, DeMint would be the top choice of Tea Party folks right now. He’s fighting the establishment from inside, and I think that will be a plus in 2012.”

Bob MacGuffie, a libertarian-leaning Republican activist involved in the Connecticut Tea Party movement, said that Palin “is a fantastic organizer for the conservative movement — she is pitch perfect on the stump.”

“I would hope she keeps doing that through the 2012 cycle. There are other, better positioned, more qualified candidates the Republican Party could nominate,” MacGuffie said. (...)