There was a good heads up for the Tea Party by Toby Harnden of the UK Telegraph. Of course it was slightly patronising in that Victorian gentleman explorer kind of way (“even though the islanders wore face paint and bones through their noses they turned out to be decent chaps…”) and Harnden was late coming to the TP OK club. Like most UK hacks he ignored it for over a year and, don’t forget, be bought into the David Brooks Obama worship shtick throughout the ’08 campaign….never once did he attempt to do wear out any shoe leather by pounding the Chicago streets and sussing out Obama’s seedier connections with the Windy City’s corrupt machine. Nevertheless Toby had his Damascus moment and, for the last few months, has been straying from the Brooks line and checking the cracks in the Styrofoam columns.

Which makes this towards the end of his piece all the more disturbing

The biggest test of the Tea Party’s power will come in 2012. It would be unwise to assume that Palin is the only one who stands to benefit. Some Tea Party groups are very pro-Palin but others are wary of her celebrity and her decision to quit as Alaska governor.
She perhaps didn’t help herself in Iowa on Friday night when she suggested in a speech, ostensibly in honour of Ronald Reagan that she might be “the one” for 2012 – the messianic term used by Oprah Winfrey when she endorsed Obama in 2008.

Whoa, Silver – what was that again? Palin makes a speech in Iowa, saying she’s “The One”….which speech was that, Toby? I didn’t realise she made two speeches in Iowa. I’ve checked through this one and not seen anything about 2012 except a joke about running shoes and the media. Naturally you also watched this speech (you are surely not one of those lazy hacks who rely on reports of a speech to unleash your analytical wisdom, are you?)
I can only assume you are commenting on an Iowa speech of which nobody else in the US or US media is aware – if so, please send us the link.

Or perhaps you were a little confused and mixed it up with this quote from a Fox interview round about the same time

“If the American people were to be ready for someone who is willing to shake it up, and willing to get back to time-tested truths, and help lead our country towards a more prosperous and safe future and if they happen to think I was the one, if it were best for my family and for our country, of course I would give it a shot,” she said.
“But I’m not saying that it’s me. I know I can certainly make a difference without having a title. I’m having a good time doing exactly that right now.”

Sorry, Toby – that’s a far cry from the self anointing image you were attempting to portray in your hit on Palin. It is standard will I/won’t I rentaquote from any political figure teasing the media. Moreover, as far as I am aware, very few, if any, in the US media have adopted your take on that remark – and, as you well know, there are serried ranks of reporters ready and waiting to pounce on any Palin remark and distort it.

I refuse to use the fatal three letter word, preferring to think you were a bit tired, racing for a deadline and rather sloppy in your research. But I do hope you will be man enough to retract – it would be the decent thing to do, old chap….

cross posted at Conservatives4Palin