“On the other side the Tea Party was going to make sure that for the first time in 30 years a conservative nominee would be the standard-bearer of the Republican Party. The platform would include radically smaller government, less intrusive government,......”
Glad to see this view open to discussion. Can’t speak for the Tea Party, but would guess their goals as enumerated haven’t changed. The attrition of conservative candidates before any primaries so far has not been encouraging, and I have to think the MSM and other manipulators of public opinion deserve considerable credit, and further, the slightly different approach of late in cheer leading for Newt suggests his attributes are judged the easier to defeat next November. A teflon coated (kevlar if you prefer) candidate coming to the fore at this time would be dread for the Democrat propaganda machine, which is incapable of anything positive to say on behalf of their ultimate candidate.