NDGOP Convention Update: The Tea Party Factor

Chairman Gary Emineth just asked from the stage how many people had attended the recent Take Back Washington rally in Bismarck. There was a decent amount of applause. Emineth then asked how many in the crowd had attended a tea party over the last year.
About 50% of the crowd raised their hands, with many cheering and standing up.
Emineth then thanked the tea party, and welcomed all the new people the tea party movement had brought to the convention.
Not only a classy move by Chairman Emineth at a time when many in the NDGOP seem uninterested in letting the “rabble” (as one Republican district chair described the tea party crowd to me in an email) into the party, but also a telling one.
The tea party movement is represented here at the convention in a big way. Let’s hope the candidates who leave this convention with the nomination remember that.