Should Sarah Palin Lead the Tea Party?

(Feb. 8) -- Whether Sarah Palin -- or anyone else, for that matter -- becomes the de facto leader of the Tea Party remains to be seen. But there's no doubt that she was the face of the movement this past weekend.

Palin was the star attraction at the first National Tea Party Convention in Nashville. Her portrait was on the cover of the program for the event, and she was paid a reported $100,000 to give the keynote address at Saturday night's closing dinner.

The ex-governor of Alaska touched on the leadership question in her speech.

"I caution against allowing this movement to be defined by any one leader or any one politician. The Tea Party movement is not a top-down operation," Palin declared -- then added a dig at President Barack Obama. "This is about the people, and it's bigger than any king or queen of the Tea Party, and it's a lot bigger than any charismatic guy with a teleprompter."

But John McCain's former running mate was clearly queen for the night at the convention Saturday.

"Ms. Palin may not be an official leader of the movement, but her appearance Saturday -- televised live and attended by 1,100 activists -- underscored her ability to capture the spirit of the conservative grass roots," The Wall Street Journal's Susan Davis reported.

RedState's Erick Erickson, who had been critical of the high-priced event organized by Judson Phillips' for-profit Tea Party Nation, said Palin "hit it out of the park" in her speech. Although Palin said the movement doesn't need a leader, the conservative blogger added, "her ability to unite disparate Tea Party groups and voices" could help the movement organize behind certain candidates.

Might one such candidate be Palin herself? Several online commentators questioned her motives for headlining the Tea Party convention.

"Palin, while explicitly saying the movement had no leader, implicitly offered herself up as one," complained Nashvillepost.com blogger A.C. Kleinheider. "It was a purely political speech designed to position her for a presidential run in 2012 or 2016. Period. She wasn't there to celebrate the organic nature of a movement she had nothing to do with creating. She was there to co-opt the name and claim the brand as hers."

"The National Tea Party Convention ended with a Palin for president rally," said The Daily Beast's John Avlon. "For the Tea Party movement, it was an oddly establishment end to a conference devoted to rebellion -- the crowd's full-throated endorsement of the GOP's former VP nominee."

True/Slant's Rick Ungar charged that Palin "does not possess the character to be a legitimate leader of any political movement" and predicted "the Tea Party folks will realize that Gov. Palin is using them for her own purposes."

Convention-goers seemed eager to jump on a Palin-for-president bandwagon, chanting "run, Sarah, run" during her speech. But The Washington Post's report on the event noted that while many Tea Party activists "embrace Palin as a spokeswoman, they are deeply divided over whether they want her as their leader -- or whether they want any leader at all."

"It's hard for us to unify behind any one person," convention delegate Bettina Bibiano told Time.com. "We're not a cult."