PJ: Has Palin joined the ranks of Britney Spears and Paris Hilton--once celebrity darlings now rarely mentioned in the media? Has her tea party crown been given to another? Has she be replaced by other news making right-wing politicos like Michelle Bachmann and Donald Trump?
The Daily Mail
Has Sarah Palin’s bubble burst? Tea party heroine only draws 6,500 at rally (and 'most' of them were protesters)
By Daily Mail Reporter
She has risen from being a little-known Alaskan governor to the darling of the Tea Party.
But after enjoying three years as one of the most prominent figures in right-wing politics, could Sarah Palin’s profile be starting to fall?
Only 6,500 people turned up to see her at a rally in Wisconsin on Saturday, and opponents said that most of the crowd were protesters.
After being selected as John McCain’s running mate for the 2008 election, Palin became one of the most talked about women in America.
She gave up her job as governor of Alaska and became the face of the Tea Party movement, drawing tens of thousands of people to rallies calling for a reduction in government spending and opposing Obama's healthcare plans.
But in the last couple of weeks she has increasingly been pushed into the shadows as speculation grows that Donald Trump will be selected as the Republican candidate for the 2012 presidential election.
At the Tea Party tax day rally on Saturday in Madison, Palin faced hundreds of jeering demonstrators who as she tried to defend a polarising union rights law introduced by Wisconsin’s governor Scott Walker.
Wisconsin Capitol Police estimated that about 6,500 people were at the event in front of the steps of the state’s Capitol building.
But union demonstrators said they made up the most part of the crowd and dwarfed the group of Tea Party supporters who had turned out to see the former governor and GOP vice presidential candidate.
‘Hey, folks! He's trying to save your jobs and your pensions!’ Palin yelled into the microphone, as she battled to be heard above the shouts of the demonstrators.
‘Your governor did the right thing and you won! Your beautiful state won! And people still have their jobs!’ she said.
But hundreds of labour supporters, who had surrounded the rally, tried to drown out Palin with chants of ‘Hey-hey, ho-ho, Scott Walker has got to go!’ and ‘Recall Walker!’
The tea partyers appeared clustered in front of the building, waving ‘Don't Tread on Me’ flags and signs that read ‘Public workers - the party is over,’ ‘Thank you, Scott,’ and ‘Tax and spend brings the end.’
Counter-protesters surrounded them, banging drums, bellowing into bullhorns and ringing bells.
Bill Leuters, one of the protesters, said: ‘The pro-Palin crowd filled only part of the King Street entrance, down to about 50 feet from the Capitol side of the Hans Christian Heg statue.
‘And although there was some spillover of tea partiers to either side, the rally was dwarfed by the counter-protesters who filled the back end of the entranceway and spilled into the street.’
Wisconsin Capitol Police said it was impossible to tell how many were tea partyers and how many were labour supporters.
For pictures and video:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1377817/Sarah-Palin-draws-6-500-rally-protesters.html?ito=feeds-newsxml
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