Tea Party Group Says It Will Support Whoever The GOP Nominates, Even Romney
Well, I can’t say this is surprising:
The Tea Party will support whoever wins the GOP presidential nomination – – even if that person is former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney. That’s the affirmative word from Tea Party Express chair Amy Kremer.
Kremer told Fox News on Saturday, “whoever the Republican nominee is will have to have the support of the Tea Party movement, the entire Tea Party movement.”
Kremer went on to say the Tea Party is “completely neutral,” adding that it “just wants to see the cream rise to the top… If Romney is the nominee I believe that we want to defeat Barack Obama.”
Her confidence comes while some Tea Partiers, including some at FreedomWorks, a leading voice in the Tea Party movement, set their sights on stopping a Romney nomination.
Kremer also wants to put to rest the idea the Tea Party would support a third party candidate, insisting the Tea Party can work from within the democratic and republican parties.
“There is no way that we are going to support a third party candidate. It would split the vote and it would guarantee reelection for Obama, and we need to crush Obama we have to get him out of the White House,” says Kremer.
Politically, this is actually the right attitude. However, it does confirm yet again that the Tea Party and the GOP are basically the same thing at this point. Although I guess if I’d had a chance to talk to Kremer I might have told her that her comments today have seriously reduced her groups influence over the GOP nomination process. If they already know you’ll support whoever they nominate, they don’t really have to listen to you, do they?
Via Twitter
How Amy Kremer can speak for however many fiercely independent right wing nut jobs are in the Tea Party movement with any degree of accuracy is another question altogether.
Why? If this is indeed sincere, why should the GOP leadership bother to pay attention to any of the Tea Party’s demands now? If they’re going to vote for the GOP candidate regardless, why not just ignore them and concentrate on wooing people who will stay home or vote for someone else?
And yet, we’ve been told that Tea Party types aren’t just Republicans…that their members supposedly include independents and even Democrats…I guess someone forgot to tell Kremer that…
Everyone here’s focusing on the “in November” part, and ignoring what happens between now and then:
Primaries.
That’s where the Tea Party folks see their power right now, and that’s where they’re going to focus their efforts. They know who the Democratic nominee will be, and where he stands on the key issues — so any efforts on that side will be wasted. So, instead, focus on getting the most Tea Party-friendly candidate the Republican nomination, and then get that candidate elected.
On the issues the Tea Party folks see as the most important, they don’t see a single Republican who would be as bad or worse than Obama.
So this boils down to “the Tea Party has discovered pragmatism.”
J.
The Tea Party(ies) is/are not a political party. These are groups of people who think they can wear goofy outfits, go to rally’s and wave around goofy signs and somehow President Obama will be defeated in 2012.
There is zero national leadership. There is zero political organization for any Tea Party in States.
How many candidates ran in the mid term elections listed as Tea Party candidates on ballots opposing both Dem and GOP nominees for the same office? Damn few. How many won? Any?
“Kremer also wants to put to rest the idea the Tea Party would support a third party candidate, insisting the Tea Party can work from within the democratic and republican parties.”
She’s kidding, right?
The Green Party is more organized than the Tea Baggers and the Green Party isn’t going anywhere.
There is zero national leadership. There is zero political organization for any Tea Party in States.
That’s a feature. That’s a strength. That’s by design.
It immunizes them to several of the Alinsky tactics that the left has used so successfully in the past.
J.
JT sez: “That’s a feature. That’s a strength. That’s by design.”
Ernieyeball sez: It certainly is not intelligent design!”
Sorry but this Kremer woman is NOT the tea party and never has been and does NOT represent the grassroots movement which started officially in 2007. She is a creation of the GOP and they are hijackers and we want nothing to do with them. They think the tea party is a way to make themselves money.. they think it started in 2009 when it started in 2007 in NH.
LIKEWISE, a group calling itself “Tea Party Patriots”, people who while using the name of the tea party movement, apparently have no idea that the tea party started in 2007 right here in NH, has been sending direct mail to NH residents asking to raise $10 Million dollars to fund their CEO’s private plane trips. Again we in NH want nothing to do with them! They do not represent us and we know they are creations of the GOP, just as the fake the tea party dot net group from Town Hall dot com is.
Please note that the tea party is a movement and as such does NOT have a ‘CEO’. These groups has no connection to the legit groups who would never ask you for money.
See how NH is structured, now THAT is a bona fide tea party.
Ms. Kremer –
You by absolutely no authority speak for me. Who in the hell do you think you are?
I would vote 3rd party or mark a write in before I would vote for Romney. At least with Obama we know the agenda we are dealing with.
@Jay Tea:
B-I-N-G-O … and solid analysis for the rest of the post. This is all about the primaries in their mind.
The problem becomes what happens when the local groups fracture a bit on what counts as a good candidate… that should be an interesting issue. The second question, which follows from the recent NY special election and the ’08 presidential election, what happens if the preferred candidate doesn’t win out? Will it be another case of the base stays home.
Way too soon to tell on that second point.