Politics | Tea Party Sarah Palin to Headline Tea Party Convention Could be first step toward new party, complete with candidate By Mary Papenfuss Posted Jan 8, 2010 4:13 AM CST Updated Jan 8, 2010 7:00 AM CST Copied Sarah Palin talks with a supporter as she autographs copies of her book "Going Rogue" during a book signing in Tempe, Ariz. (AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin, File) Sarah Palin will be the headline speaker in the nation's first-ever Tea Party convention next month in Tennessee, raising the specter of a spin-off political party already laying claim to a presidential candidate. A generic “Tea Party” is already more popular than either Democrats or Republicans, while Palin rivals Obama in popularity in a new NBC/Wall Street Journal poll. "Tea types can either blossom into a Perotista-style third-party movement or be subsumed to some degree by the GOP," notes Howard Kurtz in the Washington Post. Either way, Tea Party supporters will wield significant clout in upcoming elections by tapping into discontent with the Democratic Party and threatening to purge moderates from the GOP, experts note. Enter Sarah Palin, who never stopped campaigning for herself. "This is perfect for her, made for her," Emory University politics professor Alan Abramowitz tells the Christian Science Monitor. Read These Next Iran's leaders ditched their phones. Their bodyguards didn't. It's an unexpected footnote in the life of Buford Pusser. Bobby Prevost's childhood home is a new pilgrimage site. A Stone Age settlement swallowed by the sea has been rediscovered. Report an error