Tea Party... WTF ?

Can somebody explain why the Tea Party is having such a success in the USA? I saw a long documentary about it on the BBC and, to me, its rise seems inexplicable. The guy from Fox News who seems to front it is such an obvious fake that nobody could take him seriously, yet he seems to be earning $30m a year now that the Tea Party has taken off.
In the same way, I don't see how anyone could take Sarah Palin at all seriously.
I am a great fan of Americans, having loads in my circle of frienmds and they just roll their eyes when the Tea Party is mentioned. Is something happening in the US which isn't reaching European news?

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RE: Tea Party... WTF ?

Sorry, been away for a while...

The Tea Party is sort of like a religious group: get you when you're down and out, and proceed to offer a cure to allyour problems. If you like research, you eventually find out the solutions weren't really solutions, just different options which looked nice at the time.

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