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The difference between Romney and Palin

I don't know what's going on in the Republican and Tea Party.What's with Romney having his big announcement day with Palin popping in just to hog the stage from

I don't know what's going on in the Republican and Tea Party.

What's with Romney having his big announcement day with Palin popping in just to hog the stage from him? What's with the governors both trying to squeeze themselves into the same place at the same time?

Could this be a loud statement by Palin that she's not happy one bit with Mr. Frontrunner that she will do what's necessary to ensure that he doesn't end up as the Republicans' only hope to beat Obama?

Well, she’s made that fact clear already. She clearly suggested along the trail this week that better candidates are going to enter the race, better than the trio of usual suspects already aboard, Romney being the lead troubadour in the group.

So this is what the American right looks like right now, what it's looked like since last year, what it certainly seems headed toward looking like next year, a big, loud, undeniable, unhide-able civil war between what we've thought of as Republicans the last half century and what Tea Partiers are all about.

I contend there is a bigger difference between Romney and Palin than there is between Romney and Obama. Romney and Obama believe that people should have to have health insurance. Palin doesn't. Obama and Romney believe in government and what it can accomplish. Palin believes in hanging around with Bikers and saying inane things about the French.

Anyway, this is the problem on the right. They are headed toward a fool's errand. They'll out to prove that the genuine Republicans who believe in government and regular political negotiation and compromise and those who believe government and politics are bad.

Palin will disrupt every effort by the regular Republicans to win the nomination next year. She will gin up trouble and create distractions and disruptions all the way to Tampa for the simple reason that she either wants the Republican nomination or wants it to go to a Tea Partier loyal to her and all she espouses.

So watch the unemployment number between now and next summer. But also keep your eye on the schism on the right and the desire of the Tea Party people to keep the nomination under their control, to ensure that the person who stands forth against Obama is pure Tea Party, that he or she "personifies" the movement.

For them it's either live "tea" or die.