Can anything stop the Tea Party?
(Image credit: Harrison Mcclary/Reuters/Corbis)

This weekend's Tea Party convention — designed to solidify the disjointed grassroots movement — came to a rousing conclusion with headline speaker Sarah Palin's prediction that a Tea Party "revolution" would soon sweep America. But after the dust settled, the future of the Party remains a point of contention among its own members. Yes, the "movement is growing up," says convention organizer Judson Phillips, but "if 2010 is another year of rallies, we've lost." Here, five theories on the Party's destiny:

1. The Tea Party will become a viable third party: "Pundits" who dismiss the Tea Party as disjointed and "nihilistic," says Glenn Reynolds in the Washington Examiner, are deluded. Tea Party members are already devising a winning "big tent" platform based on fiscal conservatism. Armed with this highly popular ideal, the movement could steal support from across the political spectrum. Any politicians who dismiss this threat "are likely to find themselves out of a job."

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