Republican Party should absorb the Tea Party: Palin

Nashville (Tennessee, US), Feb 7 (ANI): Former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin has launched an aggressive campaign to become the leader of the increasingly popular Tea Party Movement.

Addressing the media after her speech, Palin, who is reportedly positioning herself to improve her prospects for securing the 2012 Republican presidential nomination," said that the Republican Party should absorb the Tea Party.

"The Republican Party would be smart to absorb as much of the Tea Party as possible. The Tea Party is the future of politics. It is shaping the way of politics in the future," CBS News quoted Palin, as saying.

At the same time she said the current form of the Tea Party is "fresh, young and fragile, and it is a sacred trust to carry these ideas forward.

"The Tea Party is not just a bunch of hard-core registered Republicans, she explained, citing her husband, Todd Palin, as example of someone who doesn't want to be part of a registered party, and independents who believe in the Tea Party movement.

She added that the Tea Party could even "empower and embolden" more conservative Democrats to "come out of the closet."

Reiterating that the Tea Party is the future of politics, she said: "I will live or die for the American people, whatever I can do to help."

Earlier, according to a CNN/Opinion Research Corp. poll had found that 35 percent of independents had a favourable impression of the Tea Party Movement, while 24 percent held a negative view.

Still, another survey found the Tea Party brand outpolling the embattled Republican Party, and Palin reinforced the impression that tea partiers are the most desired bloc of the conservative electorate when she turned down an invitation to speak at this month's Conservative Political Action Conference, traditionally a must-attend for establishment conservatives and Republicans, while choosing to speak here in Nashville.

Palin also has endeared herself to tea partiers by endorsing movement candidates. (ANI)