Tea party: A movement in fear of itself?

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Among the things we’re learning about the tea party movement:

Those who support that loose amalgamation of people protesting the reach of the American government lately aren’t much different than the American public in general, the Gallup Poll reports.

But they are having trouble forming any real party of their own, the Associated Press suggests today, in part because some fear the potential impact of an actual third party on a presidential election -- such as that 1992 vote in which Ross Perot’s third-party candidacy drew 19% of the vote and handed the White House to Bill Clinton.

The Gallup Poll attempted to count heads, too, and found that 28% of those surveyed in its March 26-28 poll call themselves supporters of the tea party movement.

-- Mark Silva

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