It has been reported that the Obama campaign this year, as in 2008, has disabled or chosen not to use AVS in screening contributions made by credit card. That doesn't sound very important. But it's evidence of a modus operandi that strikes me as thuggish.

Blacks are still largely lock-step Democratic voters and will probably remain so for a while. But when you listen to the likes of West and Clyburn, never mind silly white liberals like Garofalo, one cannot help but be reassured that the ground is shifting under their feet as inexorably as it shifted under the feet of racists more than a generation ago.

The tea party movement opposes the culture of dependence inherent in many of the president's policies, recognizing the long term societal implications of those policies.

The tea partiers are focusing on the expansion of government and its threat to the independence of citizens.

Rather than await the decision on the Affordable Care Act, President Obama decided to attack preemptively with error-filled claims about the place of judicial review in our constitutional system. Judicial review springs from the duty of a court, when deciding a case before it, to enforce the Constitution over a conflicting act of Congress.

At last, after pundits, pollsters and politicians have filled the media for months with their wisdom, tomorrow in Iowa, actual American voters begin actual voting in an actual caucus. Be prepared to be surprised.

Rick Santelli's rant underscores Americans' frustration with the current government and explains why thousands of previously uninvolved citizens are making their mark in primaries and special elections.

The significance and potential of the Tea Party movement can only be understood by examining populism in its unique manifestation in the United States, where its history is both consoling and cautionary about this modern populist movement.