An unsuitable President ? And the failure of mainstream politics

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cremeegg

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Catherine Connolly is likely to be elected President shortly. While she has many fine qualities, her judgment in when she chooses to speak her mind and when she chooses to avoid doing so is, to me at least, questionable.

No one can tell how she will work out as President, and she may work out very well, but why are we left with no realistic alternative.

FF is unable to present the Irish people with a candidate. This goes well beyond Jim Gavin. The party choose him, they thought he was good enough. They have of course Bertie as an alternative, his CV makes him an excellent candidate, but Bertie is tainted by FFs fundamental failing, its dubious connections with big business, a Finance Minister without a bank account indeed ! Two generations on from the men in the mohair suits FF is still unable to free itself from the stench of corruption.

To my mind FG's situation is worse. Their candidate is loosing and so has turned mean. If yielding to temptation is the FF fault, yield to anger and lashing out is the FG fault, Paddy Donegan, the heavy gang, and now the bizarre smearing of Catherine Connolly for her legal work. FG is anti lawyer now ?? This misleading of the public, accusing CC of doing something which is absolutely established as proper conduct for a barrister, can only harm the standing of the legal system. FG attitude seems to be, if we can't rule the house we will pull it down.

Neither of the main parties could put forward a candidate able to articulate a vision of Ireland secure in its place in the world, happy to work with its partners, willing to disagree with them where necessary.

If we find ourselves in the future with the type of poisonous politics that so many others suffer from, it will not be the fault of the right or the left, it will be the failure of the centre.
 
I think some of the most disappointed people with a CC Presidency will be some of her strongest supporters. They may have unrealistic expectations of what can be done. They would be making noise if HH had represented banks in possession cases. They'll be disappointed if she were to sign an austerity type bill.
 
cremeegg said:
now the bizarre smearing of Catherine Connolly for her legal work. FG is anti lawyer now ??
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I don’t think it’s unreasonable, given CC’s condemnation of the banks’ pursuit of repossessions (even though the incidence of repossession is lower in this country than in others) that it be pointed out that she represented the very people she later condemned.

I accept that her clients had a reasonable entitlement to a strong defence but in condemning the banks subsequently, she should have at least mentioned her previous work, even if it was in the context of expressing a Damascus-like conversion to the side of righteousness.

More unsettling is her employment of a person who’s part of an organisation that seeks to undermine the state itself and who was under Garda surveillance for the duration of her employment. Nixon resigned over much less.

But hey, she speaks Irish.
 
losttheplot said:
I think some of the most disappointed people with a CC Presidency will be some of her strongest supporters.
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I think you are probably right that her strongest supporters will be disappointed, but it is middle Ireland that will elect her. Will they be disappointed?

Eoghan Harris described Mary MacAleese as a (sectarian) ticking time bomb. I think CC may well inherit Micheal Ds role as the darling of middle Ireland but it’s the failure of FF and FG and the next Dáil election that worries me.
 
cremeegg said:
Neither of the main parties could put forward a candidate able to articulate a vision of Ireland secure in its place in the world, happy to work with its partners, willing to disagree with them where necessary.
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The biggest Party in the country is Sinn Fein and they failed to put forward their own candidate. FG had a much stronger candidate who, in my opinion, would have won comfortably, but she had to withdraw from health reasons.

I agree that FF have made an utter hames of the election but FG found themselves having to make an eleventh hour decision and selecting a weak candidate. They subsequently ran a bad campaign and shot themselves in the foot more than once. None of that takes away from the complete failure of the Shinners to even nominate their own candidate.
cremeegg said:
Catherine Connolly is likely to be elected President shortly. While she has many fine qualities, her judgment in when she chooses to speak her mind and when she chooses to avoid doing so is, to me at least, questionable.

No one can tell how she will work out as President, and she may work out very well, but why are we left with no realistic alternative.
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I am confident that she won't be worse than Micky D, but then again who would?
 
I think it was a mistake by FG not allowing Steen and Sheridan onto the ballot. It would have split the 'protest' vote that coalesced around Connolly and subjected her to attacks from different political spectrums.
 
As Purple said, FG did have an excellent candidate originally but unfortunately she had to withdraw. They do deserve criticism for the poor replacement and they certainly deserve criticism for a very poor campaign but it could all have been very different.
FF made a right mess of this election and really need to review and learn from it.
SF may think that opting out was the right choice but I'm not so sure, this may come back and bite them.
But I do agree with your overall point @cremeegg , this is a failed election for the majority of the electorate and the center parties need to learn from this and quick.
 
Ceist Beag said:
But I do agree with your overall point @cremeegg , this is a failed election for the majority of the electorate and the center parties need to learn from this and quick.
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Yes, we have the choice of a rather dull Mumsy centralist candidate or a more accomplished far left candidate who was originally nominated by the Irish communists. Not much of a choice.
 
Ceist Beag said:
SF may think that opting out was the right choice but I'm not so sure, this may come back and bite them.
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I heard on RTE that Mary-Louise, Holly and Ivanna are attending Catherine's victory canvass of Galway this evening, I wonder whether the Russian Ambassador will also be there. There was no mention of Smirker Murphy, so perhaps he's too busy briefing his libel lawyers about HH's alleged defamation.
 
odyssey06 said:
think it was a mistake by FG not allowing Steen and Sheridan onto the ballot. It would have split the 'protest' vote that coalesced around Connolly and subjected her to attacks from different political spectrums.
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Yes but it wasn't fg that was preventing steen getting on the ballot, the independent senators like Michael mcdowell and Gérard craughwell i think also failed to nominate her. Incredibly mcdowell said he was afraid she might win that was the reason. I wonder were they jealous of her or something because maybe mcdowell secretly wanted to run himself but thought he wouldn't be elected but then he didn't want steen get elected even though she was very similar to him politically
 
joe sod said:
maybe mcdowell secretly wanted to run himself but thought he wouldn't be elected but then he didn't want steen get elected even though she was very similar to him politically
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She's nowhere close to him politically. McDowell is a social liberal and secularist.

He believes in fiscal responsibility and policies that reward hard work so to RTE, the editorial staff of the Irish Times and Smoked Salmon Socialists in general he's a Neo-Con monster.
 
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