Numbers genius Nate Silver crunches…well…numbers and comes up with some extremely wonky but very interesting scenarios, which he explains in detail here. The general conclusion, and there are a lot of variables, is that Palin has a solid chance at getting the GOP nomination as long as no one asks too many detailed questions about anything. Some interesting notes on the factors weighing into it all after the jump.

Wow. Rachel Maddow will not be giving the Tea Partiers any sort of free pass and once you watch this you may understand why. Specifically, Maddow is criticizing (actually, she’s eviscerating…no joke) what she calls the Tea Partiers “embrace of racist history” — in this case, a call for the return of segregation-era literacy tests.

The National Tea Party convention was held this weekend in Nashville, Tennessee, and has, predictably, been a hot topic on cable news. Tonight Bill O’Reilly took his turn, discussing the third party phenomenon/movement with Fox News pundit Brit Hume and offered a frank and candid assessment on some of the participants of the Tea Party movement. “Some of these tea party people are nuts! They are! They’re crazy!” Video after the jump.

A Saturday afternoon Fox News report revealed much about the situation on the ground at the Tea Party Convention this weekend in the lead up to Sarah Palin‘s keynote address. The Fox reporter, though, was careful to note that this convention is by no means representative of the entire movement, focusing on the issue of the Birthers, who believe President Obama is not a natural born citizen and are a cause for concern among conservatives wishing to focus more on substantive (factual?) issues.

There’s a neat symmetry to the fact that, the day after Keith Olbermann responded to gleeful rumors of his own demise, he posits the end of the line for Sarah Palin. Emboldened by the release of thousands of Palin emails, the inauspiciously racist kickoff to the Palin-headlined “Tea Party Convention,” and Palin’s truckling response to Rush Limbaugh’s cowardly “retard” litany, Keith asks if the countdown is on to the end of Palin’s political career.

Media Matters breathlessly reported how Rep. Tom Tancredo opened the Tea Party Convention in Nashville yesterday with remarkably harsh words for both the American electorate and President Obama. What they neglected to report was that he also shared similarly harsh words for GOP nominee John McCain, perhaps because his solely railing against Obama better fits the binary narrative some love to promote? Video after the clip.

Is there a more media savvy politician out there than Sarah Palin? I’m not convinced. Earlier this week Palin called for chief of staff Rahm Emanuel’s firing on her Facebook. Today USA Today published an oped penned by Palin defending her choice to appear at the Tea Party convention this weekend. Solution: If you can’t afford it feel free to virtually participate on her Facebook page!