Palin seeks to secure 2012 prez bid through Tea Party Movement

Nashville (Tennessee, US), Feb.6 (ANI): Former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin will this weekend launch an aggressive campaign to become the leader of the increasingly popular Tea Party Movement.

According to Politico, Palin is positioning herself to improve her prospects for securing the 2012 Republican presidential nomination.

And, the Tea Party is a natural fit for Palin, whose populist anti-Washington rhetoric and working mom persona have made her a movement favourite since its grass-roots activists burst onto the scene last year in opposition to the big-spending initiatives of President Barack Obama and the Democratic Congress.

Palin compared the movement to the American Revolution and the struggle for civil rights, while identifying with its activists, in an op-ed piece this week in USA Today.

Her keynote speech Saturday night to a gathering here that bills itself as the first National Tea Party Convention will be followed by appearances at recently announced Tea Party rallies in Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid's hometown next month and in Boston in April.ut embracing the movement also has a potential downside. Not only could it drag her into the controversies and in-fighting that have swirled around the movement; it also could further alienate the independents and Democrats who were left with a sour taste from her 2008 GOP vice presidential campaign.

And the chaotic collection of local groups that make up the movement may not accept her - or anyone else - as a leader anyway.

Though 35 percent of independents have a favourable impression of the Tea Party Movement, 24 percent hold a negative view, according to a CNN/Opinion Research Corp. poll released this week.

Still, another survey found the Tea Party brand outpolling the embattled Republican Party, and Palin reinforced the impression that tea partiers are the most desired bloc of the conservative electorate when she turned down an invitation to speak at this month's Conservative Political Action Conference, traditionally a must-attend for establishment conservatives and Republicans, while choosing to speak here in Nashville.

Palin also has endeared herself to tea partiers by endorsing movement candidates. (ANI)