Politicians who excel in blathering sweet sound bytes and platitudes dazzle in the media spot light, while the thoughtful thinkers who fail to shine in the personality stakes get left behind.
In this media age Bertie triumphs Cowan, Blair triumphs Browne and Gilmore apparently triumphs all-comers. Yes, sadly the line between celebrity and politics blurred some time ago.
If a visitor from space landed in Merrion Square on any given week they could be forgiven for finding it difficult to distinguish some of our politicians from games show hosts.
Take one Mr Eamon Gilmore, the darling of the media at the moment. He may be racing ahead in the polls, he comes across as an angry man just belching out bile! But yet he is basking in the warm glow of being top of the pops in the opinion polls.
On the other extreme you have Brian Cowen. Now, I don’t think the Taoiseach gets up every morning and while combing his hair wonders if he’ll be hated today. He knows in the current climate that is par for the course. He is not a runner in the popularity stakes, he is his own man and, like it or not, he refuses to be curtailed in to a 30 second sound bite.
His attitude is ‘like me or loath me, I am here to run the country’. Obviously, the decisions he is making are not popular but the Irish public has become so obsessed with popularity contests and polls, from the Eurovision to TV shows, that the message is getting confused.
The line between celebrity and politics has become a very thin one. Our leaders seem to have been convinced by the plethora of advisors that surround them that they must have an opinion on everything, in order to make sure the public realises they are still actually alive and relevant.
This is a worldwide trend. When Tony Blair relinquished his grip on Number 10 Downing Street he lamented that a large part of his time as a British prime minister was spent “coping with the media, its sheer scale, weight and constant hyperactivity”.
New Labour under Blair’s watch measured the news cycle by the number of topics they dealt with a day: “When I fought the 1997 election we took an issue a day. In 2005, we had to have one for the morning, another for the afternoon and by the evening that agenda had already moved on.”
However, since Blair waved bye-bye the acceleration of the news cycle has gone into hyper drive spurred on by the arrival of social media and twits tweeting inanities on Twitter.
No surprise that RTE and the Irish media at large are in a feeding frenzy. Let’s get one thing straight — editors and journalists are the best spin doctors in town, making the likes of my good friend Alastair Campbell and, dare I say, even the likes of me look like mere amateurs. Anyone who stands in their way will be chewed up and spat out. Politics is not an easy game and it is far easier being on the outside peeing in. For proof just ask George Lee.
Now everyone thinks they can have a go at sorting Ireland out. David McWilliams even has a show in the Abbey. The National Theatre has chronicled Irish life for many decades, but who would have thought people would flock to see someone talk about macro economics.
The Irish public is desperately seeking a hero. We are all looking for guidance, for some messiah to take us out of our dire straits to the promised land of economic prosperity.
Brian Cowan is no Bertie or Blair. And thankfully he is no Gilmore.
But be thankful he has a thick skin and is prepared to do what needs to be done. While our economy is still slow we are ahead of our biggest partner the UK in terms of turning things around.
I can’t imagine Winston Churchill was a cuddly character But he had his mind set on what needed to be done and were very dogged. You don’t have to be liked to do a good job.
This week was crowned by the unseemly Fine Gael power struggle between Enda Kenny and Richard Bruton. The media always portraits Fianna Fail as a bunch of bullyboys and thugs, but they should have bouncers on the doors of Fine Gael meetings to take the knives off them. Just look at the way Richard Bruton assaulted the leadership of Kenny. If Bruton is Fine Gael’s testament to the Darwinian principle of natural selection, we are all in a lot of trouble.
This unsightly episode took place as the findings of the Saville Enquiry were released, marking an important week for the Island of Ireland. All this while Fine Gael and the media were busy building up Bruton to be the man he’s not. Be sure that once he is outed as the man he is the media will turn against him again.
To paraphrase Winston Churchill, politicians who don’t dabble in sound bytes and popularity polls, may chastise the media for being intoxicated with polls and power struggles. But tomorrow when the media sobers up, politics will still be an ugly game.