there s plenty of raw politics to toss around. joining me from the convention, john avalon, columnist for the dailybeast.com. author of wing nuts. eric erickson, editor and chief for redstate.com. guys, thanks for being on. i want to go over with you a couple of, you know, it s a leaderless movement and a lot of the members of the tea party like to say that. there s not one leader of the movement but there are people who are popular within the movement. let s talk about a couple of them. tom tancredo who had the opening night speech. yeah, i mean, one man s red meat is another man s raw sewage. and i think last night s speech was ugly. it didn t go over as big in the crowd as some people at home might think. i think it is a consensus. this statement about barack obama being a socialist is close to conventional wisdom here. what s interesting is tancredo hasn t been that much a factor in tea parties to date. he s known primarily as an anti-illegal immigrant activist. that hasn t bee
to conventional wisdom here. what s interesting is tancredo hasn t been that much a factor in tea parties to date. he s known primarily as an anti-illegal immigrant activist. that hasn t been a force animating the tea party so far this year. exact michele bachmann? relatively new to national politics but certainly very popular. yeah. i mean, michele bachmann really has turned herself into an icon for the tea party movement. and the criticism that came on her, made her if anything more beloved by the base. she s had a whole string of howlers this year, statements about wondering whether questioning the census, calling americorps raising the reeducation camps. every time she makes statements that seem extreme, she becomes loved by the base. sarah palin is extraordinarily popular. queen of the conservative