Sunday, October 30, 2005

Retreat, ye foul Labour beasts!

The Socialist Party have stopped threatening Rodney Hide with Court action over alleged election over-spending. The whole accusation's a bit rich IMO considering Labour's no-holds-barred spend-fest, aspects of which 'thankfully' were ruled OK by speaker Madge Wilson. Besides, post-election litigation is NZF policy, not Labour's (eh Winny?). Rodney says:
"I know that Helen Clark & the Labour Party didn't want me back. Well they're going to have to get used to it."
Another reason to like him; he bugs the heck out of Labour (hehe). Confession: I feel I might be falling under the sway of cult-leader, Mr Hide. My mother warned me about weird, religious sects - but I fear we live in final days. The messiah a-cometh... and if it isn't the ACT leader himself, then it's probably - at least - one of his mates. Should the inexplicable urge to move to Epsom arise or I start prefacing all statements with, "Rodney says...," I'll seek de-programming :-)

Anyone else think Mike Williams is starting to look (physically) like a big, fat, sad, old prune? Not being horrible (I'm no Adonis myself ) just a personal aesthetic impression.

Good Lord! The end really is nigh...
Still recovering (smelling salts a'ready) from a HoS close-up on Bill English which speculates about a future stoush with Key to become Top Nat post-Don. Radically departing from tradition, a Tory is given (more or less) fair treatment - Had to read it 2x to be sure. It's no puff-piece, but lacks the usual smarm, sneering & sanctimony of our beloved 4th Estate. Where's the hard-left bias we know & love? Poor author, will probably get fired for this ;-) I like Bill's pragmatism:
"I wanted to make use of [my hard-won] experience... I've been through.. election victories.. losses.. leadership changes.. good policy.. bad policy.. And I'm young enough... to put that experience to use rather than throw it away"
This is nice:

"And anyway, what sort of example would that have set for the kids?
"Don't wallow in defeat, just getup and get stuck in again"
Amen! Saw him up close once at a march for Sensible Sentencing. Kudos to him for marching and addressing the crowd. I know he's a smart guy, conscientious, hardworking yada-yada, but observing him, I was struck by his extraordinary charisma-free personality. Perhaps, being Ngati, I'm used to hyper-theatricalism and mistake emotional restraint for character deformation:-) He just seemed so incredibly dispassionate. I'm being too kind, truth is he was friggin' BORING!

He appears a nice enough chap, a top bloke in fact, but major personality deficits hurt in election campaigns. Any media 'training' will make him seem phoney - a disaster since his most endearing quality is his simple, honest, down-to-earth, one-of-the-lads persona. His humility fits well with our 'egalitarian' psyche. John Key would thrash him in a personality contest. Don't worry, Bill. You can be still be Deputy PM, and should John accidentally suffer a mishap while out skydiving...

1 comment:

Phil said...

Cousin Vic made me do the allow-comments thingey. Just experimenting. (I know what I'm on about) - Phil