Perhaps the biggest news coming out of the Tea Party Convention held last week in Nashville, TN was the fact that Sarah Palin wrote notes on her hand during her keynote speech. While criticizing President Obama for using a teleprompter. While being paid $100,000 to speak at the convention.

But Palin jokes aside, the conference marks a huge turning point for American politics and especially, the Republican Party. A recent Washington Post-ABC News Poll found that two-thirds of Americans are dissatisfied with the federal government in D.C. With the spendthrift Democrats attempting to plow ahead with their agenda against the wishes of the American population and the Republicans doing little to stop them, many Republicans and right-leaning Independents have turned to the Tea Party movement to express their anger.

So what exactly is the Tea Party movement? The same poll found that almost two-thirds of American did not know their platform, yet 45 percent had a favorable impression of them. The movement, which emerged last year, mainly aims to curb government spending and rail against big government. It is also led by grassroots conservatives who oppose any sort of mainstream arrangement with leaders and a clear organizational structure.

In reality, the Tea Partiers are idealists who have no idea how to actually run things. Just look at the convention, with its sponsor issues and many other problems, for proof. And, despite their claim that they are representing Americans like Joe the Plumber, organizers charged $549 for a ticket to a convention. I wonder how many plumbers can afford spending more than five hundred dollars on a convention. I also wonder how much organizers spent on a hairdresser for Sarah Palin.

Yet the hodgepodge of angry Americans is a serious threat to the GOP in the upcoming elections. Despite their organization problems, there are enough people fed up with the GOP to vote for grassroots conservative candidates and split the Republican vote, ensuring that the Democrats’ continue their shopping spree on the public’s dollar.

But the GOP can learn and absorb many things from the movement, such as their passion and no-more-BS attitudes. The party is sorely lacking inspiration, fire, and energy – all of which the Tea Partiers have in abundance.

The GOP needs to learn and change their message before the 2010 midterm elections, although they should keep the teleprompters. The thought of a serious politician scribbling notes on his or her hand is simply disturbing. Even elementary school students have switched to note cards by the fifth-grade.