Free Republic

A fresh Ben dispatch on Sarah Palin: Sarah Palin all but declared her candidacy for President of Tea Party America here Monday, focusing her address to a crowd of more than a thousand conservatives on the future of the movement itself. With a yellow “Don’t Tread on Me” flag flying behind her, Palin did not hint either at a White House candidacy or an endorsement of any of the GOP’s current crop of candidates. Instead, she seemed to focus on establishing herself and the tea party as a freestanding force in a Republican Party whose presidential candidates threaten to sap...

Tina touched on this point before, but here’s Dave Weigel noting something that drives it home: I met [organizer Ken] Crow in Iowa this month (I’ve been unsuccessful reaching him today) and he struck me as a classic Tea Party archetype — an amateur with big Field of Dreams ambitions. He made me well aware of all the projects he was working on but seemed a little laconic for a guy putting on a mega-rally. “It’s gonna be televised on C-Span,” he said, “and maybe Fox, too.” Reading up on Crow today, we find that he’s a talky activist prone...

After a dizzying day that saw members of her inner circle threaten to pull Sarah Palin's participation in a rally Saturday in Indianola, Iowa, a source close to Palin confirmed to RCP that the former Alaska governor will in fact attend the Tea Party of America event, as scheduled. "We had some long discussions with the organizers; we talked about our concerns and worked them out, and they stepped up their game today," the Palin source said. Two sources close to the former vice presidential candidate had told RCP earlier Wednesday that Palin’s involvement in the rally was “on hold,”...

The Palin source said O'Donnell's representatives misled the tea party group about the extent of the governor's relationship with O'Donnell. O'Donnell's representatives told event organizers that she would be in Iowa on the date of the rally and would like to come by and "say hi" to Palin, the source said. O'Donnell was then added to the speaking agenda. The source told CNN that O'Donnell aides lied to organizers and said Palin had been communicating via text message with O'Donnell about the rally. "The governor hasn't spoken to her in a year," the Palin source said of O'Donnell

Sarah Palin canceled her Saturday appearance at a tea party rally in Indianola, Iowa, a person close the former Alaska governor told The Wall Street Journal. The person cited “continual lying” from event organizers at Tea Party of America, including a recent mixup over whether former U.S. Senate candidate Christine O’Donnell of Delaware would also speak. Ms. Palin is known for last-minute schedule changes that whipsaw supporters and media across the country. But the latest decision is puzzling. Ms. Palin’s speech at the rally was viewed as her most high-profile appearance of the summer, fueling speculation she was indeed plotting...

Former Delaware Republican Senate candidate Christine O'Donnell has joined Sarah Palin as a speaker at a tea party rally this weekend in Iowa, one of the event's organizers told CNN. A representative of O'Donnell, who is travelling the country to promote her book "Troublemaker," approached the rally's representatives Monday to ask if there was room for her to speak, Charlie Gruschow, national co-chairman of the Iowa-based Tea Party of America, said. And there was. No other national leaders will be addressing the rally, Gruschow said. Palin is slated as the event's closing speaker on Saturday afternoon. Palin's address is drawing...

She may not be an official candidate at this point, but former Sarah Palin will hit the airwaves in Iowa on Monday, and it’s not going to cost the former Alaska governor a dime. Tea Party of America -- a recently created group that is hosting a Palin-keynoted rally in the south-central Iowa town of Indianola on Sept. 3 -- is launching a major radio blitz in the nation’s first voting state to promote the prospective GOP presidential contender’s attendance at the event. Charlie Gruschow, a co-founder of the group who confirmed the ad buy to RealClearPolitics, said anyone interested...