Chris Hayes, The Nation‘s Washington editor, talks to Alison
Stewart on The Rachel Maddow Show about tea parties, the conservative
movement, and the spectacular implosion of candidate after candidate for
the 2012 Republican presidential nomination. After Sarah Palin resigned
in an awkward speech that seemed designed to head off charges before
they hit, Texas Senator John Cornyn and Governor Rick Perry were booed
at July 4 tea party protests. Add to that the ongoing saga of Mark
Sanford, now mostly an internal matter among South Carolina Republicans.
Who’s left as a leader for the party? Mitt Romney looks better and
better, according to Hayes, but Palin and her appeal to the base should
never be counted out.

—Sarah Jaffe

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