If Helen can replace half of her Cabinet and keep the show together, it will mark her out as one of the greatest political managers ever. It's very hard.He might only pay NZ partial attention these days, but he's not wrong is he. ("Air guitar" -- I love it.)
Muldoon's circle of close mates got smaller and weaker as he got older too. Exactly what does the "consort" Judith Tizard and the legion of Ministers outside Cabinet actually do? Perhaps it's good they don't do much. They manage the remarkable feat of being self-important, expensive, trivial and irrelevant at the same time.
John Key just has to keep his head down, and is happy to campaign as "Labour with tax cuts," sort of like playing a vacuous political air guitar.
As for Winston Peters, our Foreign Minister still seems to hate foreigners.He can't speak about hospitals without talking of Third World diseases and Third World people, the Central Bank policies are about, he claims, promoting speculation and money-lenders (code word), Dubai investment in New Zealand is naturally bad, but at least the anti-Asian and Muslim stuff has been shelved for a while.
Rodney Hide seems to have rejected capitalism for narcissism and is destined to be a talk-back celebrity. The Greens and the Maori Party have locked up their small market niche and go unquestioned by the media.
UPDATE: Is it only me who finds it amusing that all the local bloggers so noisily celebrating Moore's all-too accurate skewering of Helen and her legion universally ignore his equally accurate skewering of their own vacuous and narcissistic heroes. Why is that, do you think?
16 comments:
Why is that, do you think?
Because it is so unusual for Clark, or indeed any sitting PM, to be skewered by a senior insider.
Because, whatever it's faults, National is better than Labour for the country, and is the only practical alternative.
JC
Moore came up with a great line in on Leighton Smith's show this morning about Rodney Hide: "He looks like a young Mussolini in the cornfields!"
I suspect it's not Moore's own, but very funny all the same.
Its because people vote governments out, not governments in.
Air Git and Narcissus only have to keep their heads below the parapet, stay away from pole dancing establishments, foreswear other people's wives and keep their mitts out of the till.
After they have been elected, then, [sigh] its rinse and repeat.
Why is that, do you think?
Everybody ignores what does not suite them, including yourself, you of all people calling other peoples heroes 'narcissistic' is simply priceless.
Why is that?
Because the blogosphere is the Anna Nicole Smith of journalism: it is was indeed well known, but nobody is quite sure why.
It beats me why anyone cares what that ageing blowhard thinks about politicians of ANY party- his head won't be able to fit through the door after this.
It's gossip column stuff - no substance and no better than talking about Britney or Paris -- and it's just this sort of thing which is slowly herding the political blogosphere towards the sort of intellectual irrelevance one associates with the Jerry Springer Show.
One more thing - I can't be the only National Party supporter sick and tired of hysterical blog posts about the "Attacks On John Key".
The sad thing is that these bloggers will simply move, unperturbed, onto their next manufactured scandal, with the expectation that they will be taken seriously.
Is it really any wonder that not even their own party takes right-wing blogs seriously.
You often miss the point PC.
We all know that National are a bunch of numbnuts, but they've got to be better than that awful collection of career pinkos in Govt now. Who else is there to vote for? Because I'm not going to not vote.
So you're going to vote for a bunch of numbnuts. Well - thanks for nothing. :-(
Richard, you probably voted for a party that barely scraped 1000 votes nation wide in 2005. Why bother ?
Thanks for nothing right back atchya .. :-(
Why is that, do you think?
Um, because I'd die of shock if Mike Moore ever had anything remotely civil to say about anyone in the National Party or ACT? Like it or not, one thing you used to be able to say about the NZ Labour Party is that it was disciplined to a surreal degree after ten years of near-genocidal in-fighting. Watching that fall to bits is a wee bit more attention grabbing.
Richard, you probably voted for a party that barely scraped 1000 votes nation wide in 2005. Why bother?
No, I voted Libertarianz. ;-)
Do you mean, why bother voting for New Zealand's party of principle instead of a bunch of numbnuts? Or do you mean, why bother voting at all?
Anonymous
There is a difference.
Britney, Nicole and Paris do not have any power to control or even affect my life in any substantive way. The evil people Mr Moore discussed have the power to create great damage and impoverishment. This is something they have already been doing. Indeed, it is what they ACTUALLY DO.
Another thing. Unlke you, Mr Moore knows these people personally. He should know about their qualities. It's good he chooses to convey some of what he knows. Would that he would convey ALL of it.
Banker
Because people have begun to support their political parties the same way they support their favourite sports teams.
It happens in the US too. Too many people are for the Republicans or Democrats right or wrong.
That attitude is fine for supporting sports teams who need fan-support 24/7.
But politicians can ignore or even shaft their fans for 90% of their existance without loosing their position on the treasury benches. And even when they are in opposition life is pretty cosey.
And that's why you need to evaluate Politicians individually regardless of their team colours.
That lesson has been forgotten or ignored if ever it was learnt at all.
The evil people Mr Moore discussed have the power to create great damage and impoverishment
And Moore didn't? Moore is somehow more holy? He's cut of the same cloth.
Another thing. Unlke you, Mr Moore knows these people personally.
Don't assume you know me. I know some of them - not all.
Moore is yesterday's man trying to become the Clinton of NZ politics. A fatuous ego trip - nothing more.
anonymous
Shoot the messenger, ignore the message eh?
Try addressing the substantive point.
Banker
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