Hysteria on the image conscious right

In a recent poll, Rasmussen reports that 29% of Americans regard the Tea Party as having acted in a terrorist type fashion during the debt ceiling debate.  Economic terrorism?  Sure that exists but is caring about the solvency of your country really the same as flying a plane into the world trade center?  No, it's hyperbole.  Ridiculous hyperbole.  But the real problem is that 29% of Americans believe it.  However, what I want to focus on is the reaction on the right, because it strikes me as overly image conscious, and unnecessarily worried.

The normally unflappable Ed Morrissey at Hot Air had this to say,

The fact that they can even get 29% to agree that pursuing policy changes through representative government is akin to “terrorism” is depressing, but it has a silver lining. It looks like Democrats and self-professed liberals are marginalizing themselves fast in this media meme du jour.

While there is a silver lining in there, he still expresses depression about some aspects of it.  And Politicons said this;

Clearly these 29% are delusional. In fact, if it wasn’t for the Tea Party we’d be wishing for an AA+ rating. They have started the process of restoring the United States of America, not fundamentally transforming it.

That's not panic, but classifying them as delusional, while accurate seems well, nervous.  I think the headline has been buried here - Fifty-five percent (55%) of Likely U.S. Voters, in fact, say members of the Tea Party are not economic terrorists.

Don't worry about this poll, we should be busy advancing the facts and making the case for economic sensibility.  Those calling the Tea Party terrorists, as Ed Morrissey notes are sewing the seeds for their own marginalization   That indeed is good news.  Maybe the reaction on the right isn't hysteria, but it isn't overly concerned.  But today's conservatives who focus on the 29% at the expense of the 55% who do not agree with that assessment of the Tea Party are being myopic and overly image conscious.