When the tea party movement started to gain in popularity in late 2008, Sarah Palin was looked upon as a viable champion of the Constitution.
However, Palin seems to be creating her own tea party reality, to suit her own purposes.
A group called Tea Party America is a top-down astro-turfing operation that seems to have been created in 2011 for the sole purpose of promoting (supposedly) tea party-friendly candidates. One of their co-founders is a Herman Cain campaign worker.
While Palin creates her own tea party reality with such groups as TPE (another top-down group founded in 2009 by GOP consultant Sal Russo) this weekend, she has been ignoring at least 6 requests from the grassroots in NH to meet with all 50 tea party leaders.