Politico recently conducted a survey of Tea Party leaders, and their views on current elected officials and other political celebrities involved with the movemement. They got some somewhat surprising results.

From Ken Vogel at Politico (via Rightosphere):

Asked to rate on a 10-point scale the extent a series of conservative figures embodied the principles underpinning the tea party movement, respondents gave the highest grades to flame-throwing media personalities including Glenn Beck (who earned the highest average ranking: 8.4), Michelle Malkin and Andrew Breitbart above conservative Republican stalwarts who have actively courted tea party support, including Sen. Jim DeMint of South Carolina (who scored an average rating of 7.9), Rep. Michele Bachmann of Minnesota (7.8) and former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin (7.5).

Though Palin, who was McCain’s vice presidential candidate in 2008 and is eyeing a run for the GOP presidential nomination, earned the most votes when respondents were asked who they’d like to see win the presidency in 2012 — followed by [Ron] Paul and Rep. Paul Ryan of Wisconsin — more than half of respondents declined to name a preference, citing either a desire to focus on the midterms or ambivalence about the field of prospective Republican candidates.

But Palin's endorsement of ex-running mate McCain may have hurt her a bit with Tea Partiers. Continuing:

Even Palin, who generally earned high marks from respondents, came in for some criticism for endorsing McCain, declaring the GOP should “absorb as much of the tea party movement as possible,” and for her lack of experience.

“Sarah Palin is a popular person right now, but she needs to be under the wing of an educated — book-smart, not so much university-professor smart — person to learn how this is so much deeper than knowing details related to foreign and domestic policy issues,” said Scott Mittlestadt, who started a small tea party group in Valdez, Alaska, called Patriots of Valdez. “I think her education would excel under the guidance of Glenn Beck.”