In case you weren't aware, Monday night's GOP presidential debate from Tampa is co-sponsored by the Tea Party Express, and a lunchtime discussion moderated at the Florida Fairgrounds by CNN's John King was dominated by Billie Tucker, the leader of the First Coast Tea Party based in Jacksonville.
Tucker shared the stage with three prominent conservatives; Al Cardenas from the American Conservative Union, Mike Franc from the Heritage Foundation and J. Robert McClure from the Tallahassee-based James Madison Institute. But while those officials tried to talk the Tea Party talk, Tucker was the real thing, and her comments frequently led to big cheers and a couple of standing ovations by the hundreds of Tea Party members sitting the audience.
This article appears in Sep 8-14, 2011.