from what I very lightly skim from our news media, the tea party movement seems a bit weak and is indicative of a weak opposition… a weak right.

the beck/palin rally apparently drew around 100,000 people, or perhaps a bit less. that’s not a terrible showing. but it’s perhaps a bit weak for an organization that has the financial backing of some of the country’s leading billionaires, one of whom owns the most popular cable tv news network in the history of the world. and it’s perhaps a weak showing considering the event was built around two people who have unfettered access to the airwaves and who can get their messages out through a million different channels whenever they want. consider also, that this is supposedly, as the media paints it, the most virulent opposition to the democrats, a party that controls the white house and both branches of the legislature. isn’t that when opposition is supposed to be most fierce?

a somewhat related factoid about David Koch, who is one of the sponsors of the tea party movement:

To New Yorkers who associate the David H. Koch Theater at Lincoln Center with the New York City Ballet, it’s startling to learn that the Texas branch of that foundation’s political arm, known simply as Americans for Prosperity, gave its Blogger of the Year Award to an activist who had called President Obama “cokehead in chief.” (Frank Rich, The Billionaires Bankrolling the Tea Party)

I’m not sure how “startling” that is. ballet isn’t exactly the art form for the down and out.

it’s curious that the media is awash with headlines about obama’s political struggles. I note that Frank Rich, the author of the preceding blockquote, felt compelled, as seemingly all columnists do, to decry obama’s “unfocused political strategy”. funny how willing people are to criticize the political aptitude of the world’s most successful politician, and someone who has had more than the usual amount of success advancing his agenda during the first 2 years of his term. meanwhile, we don’t see headlines like “what’s wrong with the tea party?” or “the tea party: what went wrong?”.