2011 Presidential Election- Start of Campaign Poll

**BonnieShels** · 01/10/2011, 1:23 AM

What?

**thebooboys** · 01/10/2011, 1:34 AM

Regarding the Late Late Debate, well it wasn't much of a debate at all. Why can't people have the foresight to have a proper debate similar to the "US Town Hall debates", question followed by 2 minute response, followed by a 30 second rebuttal should someone disagree/target you in their response. It would be so much more revealing and argument would be fluid as opposed to the structured tripe we got from Tubridy tonight. The way the "debate" transpired Tubridy might as well have kept everyone individually and interviewed them as such. Disaster IMO. Best Performers - Dana + Norris, then McGuinness. Gay Mitchell may as well not have been there and wasn't impressed with my pick Mary

**geysir** · 01/10/2011, 4:51 PM

What positive thing can we say about the LLS? at least Tubridy was standing up, so we didn't have to listen to him slapping the table.

I think we are too hard on or dismissive of Gallagher, I'm sure after a few months in the Aras, he could turn things around and start to show a profit there. Dana shocked me with her republican communism - "burn the bondholders (heretics), up with the constitution".
On Davis' election poster? are there really some Irish people so cocooned from observations on life, that they have not come across a few morsels of vanity in the Irish woman? The though of a lady enhancing her appearance? how dare she!

**Spudulika** · 02/10/2011, 5:20 AM

http://www.independent.ie/national-n...s-2893648.html

I know some of our politicians are two steps down from slugs that have just od'ed on salt in terms of intelligence, though this is taking the biscuit. Big Phil reckons having Martin in the Aras is going to deter US multinationals from donig business in Ireland. Odd, didn't stop them in South Africa (before and after apartheid), Indonesia, Saudi Arabia, Croatia, Uzbekistan (where dissidents are boiled to death) etc etc. Looks like Martin is receiving the Trap/JD treatment. Just waiting for Daniel McDonnell to start his turn :-)

edit:
http://www.independent.ie/national-n...t-2893669.html

http://www.independent.ie/opinion/an...t-2893712.html

http://www.independent.ie/opinion/an...s-2893561.html

http://www.independent.ie/opinion/co...t-2893566.html - while I shouldn't be surprised with anything Bertie's former best mate and PR man writes, comparing IRA tribalism to German anti-semitism deserves a kick in the head for this excuse for a journalist. He's followinghe Indlin hat RTE like Sinn Fein. Lovely.

**dahamsta** · 02/10/2011, 6:59 AM

Big Phil lost the plot when he became an /actual/ politician, I wouldn't pay him any heed.

Can you imagine the crap he came out with as an "advisor"?

**Macy** · 02/10/2011, 1:55 PM

Thought Davis was brutal on 'This Week' today, especially on the payments she received for various boards. Wouldn't say how much, and just repeated it was in the public domain and transparent, when there's several different amounts out there and no one's able to confirm the actual. Very poor, under her first bit of pressure.

**geysir** · 02/10/2011, 2:12 PM

So according to the Indo, Martin McGuinness, who as joint 1st minister in the North and with his party having legislative muscle in the NI Assembly, who apparently has no great difficulty in attracting corporations to chose location in the North over the South, but would be a corporate liability in the South should he become an elected cheerleader for the republic?

But the republic is already truly blessed, that after a decade of political corruption, inept leadership, cronyism etc, which has left the republic economically ravaged, the Fine Gael government has the plan for recovery. If only they were not so busy shoveling all the funds (pension funds) for that plan, into the banks.

**Angus** · 02/10/2011, 3:45 PM

Why are we banging on about Mary's earnings from Boards - let's focus on what she did - she was on the Board of the DAA; one of the least functioning organisations in the State. She was on 2 Bank of Ireland boards - maybe she will claim that she made BoI what it is today ?

And the Stadium Ireland thing - how did that all work out ?

Ireland Inc's record in corporate governance is a national embarrassment (witness the fingers stuff) and that should be the debate

**mypost** · 02/10/2011, 4:36 PM

Originally Posted by Angus

Why are we banging on about Mary's earnings from Boards - let's focus on what she did - she was on the Board of the DAA; one of the least functioning organisations in the State. She was on 2 Bank of Ireland boards - maybe she will claim that she made BoI what it is today?

Why bother with all these questions in the first place?

It's a handy gig. Sign a few bills from parliament, host and visit the odd foreign dignatory, present Sam at Croker, meet the players in Lansdowne, and little else. Oh and the pay is good too.

It's a personality contest. We're electing someone to move residence for 14 years, not exactly a GE we're voting in.

**Angus** · 02/10/2011, 4:53 PM

Originally Posted by mypost

Why bother with all these questions in the first place?

It's a handy gig. Sign a few bills from parliament, host and visit the odd foreign dignatory, present Sam at Croker, meet the players in Lansdowne, and little else. Oh and the pay is good too.

It's a personality contest. We're electing someone to move residence for 14 years, not exactly a GE we're voting in.

Well, I agree with most of what you said - you are right; most of this campaign is a sideshow. The reason her board membership is an issue is because is it there and it becomes part of the horserace. The role we are voting for is ceremonial; in fact it is because there is so little at stake that the campaign is so vicious

**geezer** · 02/10/2011, 9:49 PM

is the only candidate who is a regular for years at LOI Grounds, He is president of GUFC and maybe if he could entice some, asian/american investors to the league over his term if he succeeds

**pineapple stu** · 03/10/2011, 8:48 AM

Isn't that going back to the parochial "He fixed my pothole" way of choosing someone to vote for though?

I'll probably be voting for Higgins though purely on a process of elimination. The Fianna Fáilers are out by association (Gallagher, Davis, Dana), couldn't see voting Sinn Féin and Norris is a bit of a broken record - yes, I know you're a trailblazer for gay rights, but we're talking about being President of the country now*. So that leaves just Gay Mitchell and Micheál D really.

* - My opinion is probably skewed by an interview in the UCD match programme last year where, when talking about playing sport in the 60s, he ended up describing an episode in the showers after one game where he "came swinging out" of the shower saying to the other person "Tony, you know what your mother always said about picking the soap up in the shower".

**Macy** · 03/10/2011, 9:07 AM

Originally Posted by Angus

The reason her board membership is an issue is because is it there and it becomes part of the horserace.

It's also about establishing why she was there, and her credentials as a genuine independent. Bartholomew told us all himself with Dobbo on 6.1, through the tears, that he only appointed friends to boards. She's tripping herself up with her answers, a bit like Gallagher earlier in the campaign - just publish her full renumeration and the story dies. If she doesn't know how to play this one, how's she going to handle a political crisis at home (a la Hillery) or some incident abroad where she has to think on her feet?

**mypost** · 03/10/2011, 9:34 AM

Originally Posted by Macy

how's she going to handle a political crisis at home (a la Hillery) or some incident abroad where she has to think on her feet?

That's the Taoiseach's job.

**Macy** · 03/10/2011, 10:23 AM

Originally Posted by mypost

That's the Taoiseach's job.

What, like the situation in 1982?

**culloty82** · 03/10/2011, 11:23 AM

Forget FG's less-than-effective attacks - what McGuinness should really worry about is the entry of Roddy Collins into the political arena in support of his candidacy.

**Spudulika** · 03/10/2011, 11:48 AM

Originally Posted by culloty82

Forget FG's less-than-effective attacks - what McGuinness should really worry about is the entry of Roddy Collins into the political arena in support of his candidacy.

Nah, that has to be an early April Fools. If anything is going to scupper his bid - short of him being found to have had inappropriate relations with an underage sheep, it's that!

Looks like the 3rd seal has been opened!

edit: [FONT=Arial][SIZE=2]http://www.independent.ie/national-n...r-2894088.html[/SIZE][/FONT]

I think this is making the good senator look a bit more dodgy than he could have imagined. He spoke about pederasty being practiced in North Africa. Now he's seen with a man substantially older. He's in a relationship with a failed asylum seeker, using religion as a stick to beat a goverment department with, and I can't help but feel like this has all but sealed that windbag from Galway's position in the Aras.

**mypost** · 03/10/2011, 3:50 PM

Originally Posted by Macy

What, like the situation in 1982?

There were a number of political situations in 1982, what one are you talking about here?

**Macy** · 03/10/2011, 7:01 PM

Ah come on mypost! The one involving the pressure put on president not to dissolve the dáil, it's pretty bloody (in)famous. Someone who flaps about whether to release payments they claim are in the public domain is hardly going to be able such a situation, which could conceivably happen again in the term of this presidency.

**mypost** · 03/10/2011, 7:08 PM

There were 2 elections that year, the budget, the AG scandal, the side the government took over the Falklands, etc. Any of them could be classed as "a political crisis at home or some incident abroad".

There was pressure put on Hillery to not dissolve the Dail, but when has any bill-signer dissolved a Dail and called an election on his own? Only when the PM advises it, does it happen.