Has the Tea Party Gone Global?

Probably not. Some of the movement's detractors might argue that it hasn't even gone national in a formidable way. Yet as the debate stirs, there's a bit of surprising news at the national tea-party convention this week in Nashville. This time, it's the news itself.

Organizers claim to have credentialed 111 media organizations that requested to cover the event. All of the usual suspects—the networks, national publications, and prominent Web sites—were approved, but also some unlikely candidates.

TV stations from France, Brazil, the U.K., Switzerland, Japan, and even Croatia sent reporters to cover the strategy weekend. Lots of the tea-party folks are very proud of their foreign media roster, eager to suppose that their size and impact have been heard, and not just in Washington but far beyond. One activist told me that all of those countries want to be here to capture what a peaceful political uprising actually looks like.

It's possible. The reporter from Brazil told me that her editors have only recently taken interest in the movement because of the effect loud and unapologetic conservatism has had on President Obama's agenda. It certainly doesn't hurt, she also said, that Sarah Palin is headlining the conference on Saturday night. Not only have American publications gone nuts for Palin, she told me. Foreign outlets have sold a lot of ads against Palin, usually with the headline of trying to "figure her out," or some variation.

Still, global domination might take a while. The tea party has shown itself to be most effective on the local level. So it's curious that local media have been completely sidelined during the convention. Organizers told a reporter from The Tennessean that they simply ran out of credentials … after they distributed them to the national outlets. The local TV stations and radio affiliates got the same denial, forced to report from the lobby. The movement that started in people's living rooms apparently wants to grow to bigger and better things.