Hopefuls plot tea party strategies

BOSTON - It's a tricky time of courtship.

As the tea party turns 2, the still-gelling field of Republican presidential contenders is the first class of White House hopefuls to try to figure out how to tap the movement's energy without alienating voters elsewhere on the political spectrum.

Look no further than this weekend's events marking the tea party's second anniversary to see how the candidates are employing different strategies. Some will be out front as the tea party stages tax-day rallies across the country. Others, not so much.

Former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty, an establishment Republican making a play for tea party support and clamoring to be heard over bigger names, is among those jumping in with both feet. Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour is being more coy.

Pawlenty joined a gathering on Boston Common - in the city where colonists staged the 1773 Tea Party revolt against the British government - and earlier in neighboring New Hampshire. He was heading for Iowa for similar appearances likely to include "Don't Tread on Me" banners and tirades against Washington spending.

Pawlenty led a Boston crowd in chanting "Yes, he did!" - a negative take on President Obama's "Yes, we can!" 2008 campaign slogan - as he listed what he called Obama's broken promises to halve the federal deficit, contain health-care costs with GOP aid, and prevent 8 percent unemployment.

"Thank you for being modern-day Paul Reveres, sounding the alarm and being the patriots who are going to lead the effort to take back our country," Pawlenty said, echoing an earlier appearance in Concord.

For his part, Obama said he welcomed the activists' work to "force some questions to the surface about who we are as a people, and what can we afford and what kind of government do we want."

"Obviously I have very different views than many in the tea party and certainly they would say they have very different views from me in terms of the proper role of government in our society," Obama said in an interview, "but my general view is that the more engaged the American people are, the more focused they are, then the better off our democracy will be over the long term."

Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin is slated to attend a weekend tea party rally at the Wisconsin Capitol, site of recent protests over legislation that would strip union rights for most public workers.