The US political scene is careening from one conservative storm to another as Obama's ship of state flounders, says Anayat Durrani Following hot on the sinking of the safest-of-safe democrat seats by a rightwing republican corsair, former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin made her own splash, headlining the first ever Tea Party Convention in Nashville this past weekend. Serving as the unofficial spokesperson of the populist movement, Palin called on "likeminded folks" to take back America and return to conservative principles. Tea parties facilitated by the Internet began emerging last spring in homes across America. The term "tea party" refers to the 1773 Boston Tea Party revolt against British colonial taxes, when revolutionaries sank British ships in the Boston harbour, a harbinger of the American revolution. In the one year since United States President Barack Obama took office, the term now represents a movement that is united in anger over high taxes and feelings of being ignored by their elected representatives. Members oppose healthcare reform, Wall Street bailouts, and the president's stimulus package. Made up of a rag-tag mix of conservatives and libertarians, tea partiers say that president George W Bush began the fiscal policies that destroyed the economy and that President Barack Obama has made them worse. "America is ready for another revolution, and you are a part of this," the 2008 Republican vice-presidential nominee told her worshipful groupies. A group called Tea Party Nation sponsored the convention, held at Nashville's Gaylord Opryland Hotel and Convention Centre, which drew mostly older, white Americans. During Palin's speech she took pot shots at the Democratic Party and President Obama on everything from foreign policy to national security and Obama's $3.8 trillion federal budget for 2011. She said Americans "need a commander in chief, not a professor of law". She ridiculed Obama's promises of hope and change for America. "How's that hopey changey stuff working out for ya," she asked the crowd. Palin criticised Obama for having devoted only nine per cent of his State of the Union address to national security and foreign policy. Obama could prove to voters that he was tough on national security and increase his chances for re-election if he "played the war card" -- declaring war on Iran. Oh, and he should show stronger support for Israel. At one point Palin attacked Obama's use of the teleprompter, forgetting for a moment about her own highschool-style cheatsheet or "hand teleprompter". An up- close shot of her left hand showed the scribbled words energy, budget cuts (crossed out), tax, and "Lift Americans' Spirits". Though not the spokesperson of the Tea Party, during a question and answer segment after her speech, Palin stressed that the GOP "would be really smart to try and absorb as much of the Tea Party movement as possible." In a televised interview Sunday, Palin said "it would be absurd" for her to rule out running for president in 2012 if she thought it would be right for America. Palin will make appearances at Tea Party rallies in Nevada and Massachusetts in the next two months. At the Saturday speech, supporters chanted "Run Sarah, Run!" hoping to see her run for president in 2012. Now a budding author and Fox News analyst, Palin's posts on Facebook are read by more than one million fans. Organisers of the convention announced on Friday that they were forming a political action committee (PAC) to raise funds and provide marketing and campaign support for "Tea Party-style" candidates in as many as 20 races this fall. The PAC, called Ensuring Liberty, plans to raise $10 million to spend in races in the 2010 Congressional elections.
