Originally Posted by
Sir Ten
Thanks for the prompt FP - an interesting interview. I watched it a couple of times. Second time around, I only watched Simon Shepherd - I don't think he truly listened to any of Muller's responses. Bunch of cliche segways between a list of questions intended to undermine any attempt by Muller/National to challenge the status quo... so just the usual I guess.
I thought Muller's inaugural speech on Friday was promising. As you'd expect, he was well prepared. However, I do worry that the constant and repetitive questioning from the media about his personal views on topics like abortion, gay marriage etc. will provide a barrage of sound bites intended scare voters away from supporting National for fear of being accused of supporting said personal views. I thought his response to such questions on Friday were well handled by referring to Nikki Kaye's more progressive stance, but at the end of the day, he is the leader and we all know how important a leader's views, allocution, smile, looks and references to Easter Bunny are... unfortunately trivial things like policies, experience, execution and team don't matter to the majority at the moment (although I expect that to change when the inevitable tax increases are floated, however this will be post-election once we're staring down the barrel of 3 more years)
The way in which the question around the 4m10s mark is asked is comical but worrying in its implication (i.e. that National has some sort of a problem with women)... "Is it that the National party just can not handle having a female leader... you've only had one in your history?". Prior to Cindy, Labour had had only one female leader as well? Quite sad how gender has become the first major focus of any candidate's suitability for key roles within politics and business.
Muller has his work cut out for him. Poor polling, a voting public that appears naive to the fact that smiles and good vibes won't pay the bills and a media unwilling or unable to hold the current Government to account.
Look forward to watching it all play out.