Palin an overpriced dud at Tea Party
Sarah Palin’s Latest Disaster: Tea Partiers Demand Refunds for Palin Speech
Sarah Palin gets paid over a hundred thousand dollars to show up places and tell people all about human nature and Milton Friedman and the future of conservatism. Next month, Palin will collect $115,000 exploiting the momentum of the Tea Party movement at the first National Tea Party Convention in Nashville, according to internal documents obtained by Mother Jones magazine. Attendees are expected to shell out $549 for the privilege of hearing Palin say things she’ll say on Fox News all the time.
But as a Mother Jones investigation reveals,
… the tickets for the Palin banquet aren’t selling–and some conservative activists who have already paid to attend are now demanding refunds. With the controversial event shaping up to be a potential flop, some Tea Partiers are urging Palin to cancel her speech to avoid a humiliating public relations disaster.
An activist who quit the organizing committee in protest over the price of attendence told reporter Stephanie Mencimer that most of the tickets to hear Palin speak have not been sold. Mencimer tested that claim by trying to buy tickets for the convention; she had no trouble obtaining 10.
In the past month the convention has sparked division among Tea Partiers. Not surprisingly, the organizers’ decision to charge attendees $549 to celebrate a movement whose identity centers on victimhood and anti-elitism proved unpopular.
The convention was decried as more proof that the GOP is hijacking the movement. Revelations that the organizer planned to turn a profit, in part by exploiting Tea Partiers’ infatuation with Palin, didn’t help.</em>
What, you thought it was a legitimate organization? You probably think guys in caves attacked us on 9/11, that Bush “won” the elections, and that using “commie pinko” as a slam has meant something since say, 1950?
