Coffee, Tea, Or A Third-Party Challenge?

Another hint that the anti-tax "tea parties" presage a third-party candidacy in 2012 that would increase the chances of President Obama's reelection. All it needs is a candidate. Thomas McClanahan in the Kansas City Star:

What we’re seeing is a center-right populist outpouring prompted by the long-term implications of President Barack Obama’s gargantuan budget, his spending plans, the massive tide of red ink those plans will generate — and, most important, what all that implies about the future balance between the government and the private sector.

I attended the tea party Wednesday at Kansas City’s Liberty Memorial, and I couldn’t find anyone who thought the event was about partisan politics. “Both parties are corrupt,” said Brian Stednick of North Kansas City....

The tea party protests recall the Ross Perot phenomenon of the early 1990s. Then as now, the basic concerns were massive federal spending and the size of government. Then as now, the movement blossomed outside the confines of traditional Democratic-Republican politics.

Hat tip to Instapundit