You are absolutely correct IMO. But also bear in mind that the MSM and the opposition want to MAKE it a case that the TEA Party lives and dies by Palin so that if she doesn’t run, they can say that the Tea Pary died, no one likes it and it doesn’t matter.
Which is the polar opposite of truth.
Good point, when Michele Bachmann and e.g. Sharron Angle might be more typical Tea Partiers than Sarah, who was a mavericky governator of Alaska when the Tea Party was being born among frustrated economic literates responding to ObamaNomics.