National Tea Party Convention Canceled Due to Low Ticket Sales

[her209]

http://blogs.abcnews.com/thenote/20...tion-cancelled-over-lagging-ticket-sales.html

National Tea Party Convention Canceled Due To Lagging Ticket Sales

September 24, 2010 2:19 PM

ABC News' Michael Falcone reports:

So much for the party. Organizers of the planned Tea Party Nation Convention, which had already been postponed once, announced this week that the gathering was being scrapped entirely.

The reason? Slow ticket sales, according to Judson Phillips, one of the ring leaders of the event, which was to be held in Las Vegas next month. The cost of the convention, which ran as high as $399, was just too much for many of the movement’s devotees.

“This decision simply came down to a matter of economics,” Phillips, the founder of Tea Party Nation who is affiliated with the group FreeAmerica.org, told The Daily Caller. Phillips said the event fell victim to the “Obama economy.”

The convention, which had been modeled after an event earlier this year in Nashville, was scheduled for Oct. 14 at the Palazzo Hotel. The Tea Party stars who were slated to make appearances included Andrew Brietbart, Lou Dobbs and Nevada Senate hopeful Sharron Angle.

But the Las Vegas Review-Journal reported earlier this week that many local grassroots conservative leaders did not mind that the Tea Party Nation Convention was nixed, especially after the controversy that plagued the Nashville event, which cost as much as $500 to attend.

"They were kind of opportunistic," Frank Ricotta, the former state director of a Nevada Tea Party group and a county-level GOP leader said in an interview with the Review-Journal’s Laura Myers.

The convention’s cancellation also raises larger questions about what’s next for the Tea Party. As Phillips wrote in a recent e-mail message to supporters, many of the original Tea Party followers are concerned about what he called the “rise of Big Tea” -- the growth of national organizations like Tea Party Nation, Tea Party Express and Tea Party Patriots.

Phillips wrote: “For many of the grass roots activists who started this movement eighteen months ago, myself included, may look and ask the question, "Dude, where's my movement?" There is no question the movement has changed. The evolution of Big Tea is the logical result of where this movement must go.”

Funniest part is bolded. The Tea Partiers must be spent from spending all their money on Tea Party candidates, Glenn Beck's Goldline, and Sarah Palin speech fees.

 

[PJABBER]

Only liberals believe that the Tea Party is actually a political party!

LOL!

 

[her209]

Only liberals believe that the Tea Party is actually a political party!

LOL!

Only Tea Partiers don't see it for what it really is.

LOL!

 

[PJABBER]

Hey, do you think the Tea Party will win some elections this year?

I would love to see a (T) after some candidate's name instead of the cliche'd (D) or (R).

 

[rudder]

hell if obama can't get people to buy tickets...

http://www.thedailybeast.com/blogs-and-stories/2010-09-23/obamas-fire-sale/

a grass roots campaign with no clear leader sure is going to have a tough time as well... especially in this economy.

 

[BoberFett]

Why would they cancel for low ticket sales? I thought the Koch's were paying for everything anyway?

 

[drebo]

I agree with the guy who said it was opportunistic. The TEA Parties were supposed to be local gatherings of small groups of people who were fed up with the BS tax rates/policies/whatevers our completely out of touch "leaders" decided. It's not supposed to be a political party, it's not supposed to need a national convention.

This is a clear case where a good, solid grass-roots campaign was stolen by out-of-touch RINO "leaders" who needed to make themselves look more conservative.

Nobody (except for liberals) fails to see that the "Tea Party" portrayed in the news is not the same as the TEA Party movement which rallied together people from all walks of life several years ago.

 

[dank69]

I agree with the guy who said it was opportunistic. The TEA Parties were supposed to be local gatherings of small groups of people who were fed up with the BS tax rates/policies/whatevers our completely out of touch "leaders" decided. It's not supposed to be a political party, it's not supposed to need a national convention.

This is a clear case where a good, solid grass-roots campaign was stolen by out-of-touch RINO "leaders" who needed to make themselves look more conservative.

Nobody (except for liberals) fails to see that the "Tea Party" portrayed in the news is not the same as the TEA Party movement which rallied together people from all walks of life several years ago.

Weren't tax rates historically low when the tea party was formed?

 

[her209]

Weren't tax rates historically low when the tea party was formed?

Don't forget the bailout of the airline industry whose CEOs promptly turned around and laid off their employees anyways and gave themselves bonuses/raises.

 

[her209]

hell if obama can't get people to buy tickets...

http://www.thedailybeast.com/blogs-and-stories/2010-09-23/obamas-fire-sale/

a grass roots campaign with no clear leader sure is going to have a tough time as well... especially in this economy.

Its a toss up.
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0410/35988.html

 

[Red Dawn]

Hey their Social Security checks only go so far.

 

[bfdd]

Why would they sell tickets? Idiots need support things like this should be free.

 

[her209]

Why would they sell tickets? Idiots need support things like this should be free.

Sharron Angle's campaign should pay for the tickets and hand them out. Its being held in Nevada. What more can she do to excite her fellow Tea Partiers and put it to Reid in November?

 

[werepossum]

I agree with the guy who said it was opportunistic. The TEA Parties were supposed to be local gatherings of small groups of people who were fed up with the BS tax rates/policies/whatevers our completely out of touch "leaders" decided. It's not supposed to be a political party, it's not supposed to need a national convention.

This is a clear case where a good, solid grass-roots campaign was stolen by out-of-touch RINO "leaders" who needed to make themselves look more conservative.

Nobody (except for liberals) fails to see that the "Tea Party" portrayed in the news is not the same as the TEA Party movement which rallied together people from all walks of life several years ago.

I agree too, this is nothing more than an attempt to make some money and political capital by milking the less intelligent among the movement. Anyone stupid enough to pay $500 to go hear people talk about a grass roots movement deserves to, well, lose $500.

 

[Generator]

Dumb people getting fleeced this whole time. Don't worry Beck and Palin will spend your money with a toast to the true patriots!

 

[Lemon law]

Hey, do you think the Tea Party will win some elections this year?

I would love to see a (T) after some candidate's name instead of the cliche'd (D) or (R).

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
In terms of the T-party winning any general elections, we will have to wait until November, Meanwhile the T-party is decimating the GOP.

But maybe PJABBER will get his wish and see a few T's wins, but how could he forget that there are a few I's or independents already in the legislative branch.

But of the 24 permutations of the letters D, R, I, and T, I like the dirt one best.

 

[bfdd]

Hey, do you think the Tea Party will win some elections this year?

I would love to see a (T) after some candidate's name instead of the cliche'd (D) or (R).

Honestly the Tea Party needs to stop worrying about getting elected right now and actually work towards establishing a party base. They aren't a viable third party, but as of right now they have the most potential to be. We NEED to break up the monogamy of the R and Ds so we can actually develop a diverse political scene.

 

[werepossum]

Honestly the Tea Party needs to stop worrying about getting elected right now and actually work towards establishing a party base. They aren't a viable third party, but as of right now they have the most potential to be. We NEED to break up the monogamy of the R and Ds so we can actually develop a diverse political scene.

I think by and large the Tea Partiers are too far right to be a viable third party. Personally I would prefer to see them doing as they are - taking back the Republican Party so that one day the GOP will present a real choice. Today far too much of the GOP's politicians are basically "I'm going to do the same thing the Democrat candidate just said he'll do, but I'm better because I'll go slower and I love G-d." Going more slowly down the same path isn't so much better as it is less worse.

My ideal would be the Republican Party becoming more conservative and a true third party emerging that would combine fiscal ultra-conservatism (i.e. devolving power to the states, slowing spending growth, eliminating or authorizing via Amendments parts of the Federal Government that are now extra-Constitutional by strict reading) with a strong conservation ethic and a strong classically liberal commitment to personal freedom. In other words, what the Republicans SAY they are for economically and what the Democrats SAY they are for socially, at least as regards personal freedom. And yes, I recognize that is less likely than, say, the Mega-Useful Tits On Flying Boars Party. (And MUTOFBP has the clear advantage of promoting bacon that delivers itself . . .) Politicians are never going to voluntarily give themselves less power, and I fear Americans are never going to give up the intoxicating power of using the armed might of government to take things from others for themselves, be that freedom or the fruits of their labor.

 

[Bateluer]

Not surprising. Most Tea Party 'member's are regular people with lives and jobs. Unlike students and liberals, they have to keep working to provide welfare for everyone else.

 

[her209]

Not surprising. Most Tea Party 'member's are regular people with lives and jobs. Unlike students and liberals, they have to keep working to provide welfare for everyone else.

Yes, that's why blue states support red states.

 

[Hayabusa Rider]

I agree too, this is nothing more than an attempt to make some money and political capital by milking the less intelligent among the movement. Anyone stupid enough to pay $500 to go hear people talk about a grass roots movement deserves to, well, lose $500.

I posted this at another forum that has a lot of Tea Partiers and they're thrilled about this falling flat. I was a bit surprised.

 

[Steeplerot]

Geritol break. Once "we the people" get their depends pulled up the uppity black man and them communist ne'er-do-wells will get it!

 

[JeffreyLebowski]

hell if obama can't get people to buy tickets...

http://www.thedailybeast.com/blogs-and-stories/2010-09-23/obamas-fire-sale/

a grass roots campaign with no clear leader sure is going to have a tough time as well... especially in this economy.

sshhhh. Don't remind them that their great orator can't fill seats either.

The most likely reason the TPers couldn't go to the Vegas event is they spent a bunch of money going to the Glenn Beck rally last month.

 

[Red Dawn]

sshhhh. Don't remind them that their great orator can't fill seats either.

The most likely reason the TPers couldn't go to the Vegas event is they spent a bunch of money going to the Glenn Beck rally last month.

No kidding, transporting those Rascal Scooters wasn't cheap.

 

[werepossum]

Geritol break. Once "we the people" get their depends pulled up the uppity black man and them communist ne'er-do-wells will get it!

Wow, the race card AND the age card! No one could possibly withstand that previously unknown combination! /sarcasm

Just so you know, your mom's basement is not technically under my bed - although I suspect my tax money does pay for it.