An unsuitable President ? And the failure of mainstream politics

Purple said:
Labour and Sinn Fein jumping on the PBP candidate is the reason the field is so small.
Click to expand...
That's primary reason but FF&FG ordering their councillors to vote against endorsing anyone was a factor too. Not just to abstain but to vote against. Gareth Sheridan looks like he'd have gotten onto the ballot but for that for starters.
 
JoeRoberts said:
This is the point Maria Steen also makes. In previous elections they would have abstained if running their own candidate. But this time it was a concerted effort to narrow the field.
Click to expand...
They did that and it impacted the wider field but in her case if Steen had gotten her act together earlier I think she could have gotten 20 endorsements from the Oireachtas. More chance of that for her imo than 4 county councils.
 
This shortage of time is a well spun argument yhat holds no water. The members of the Oireachtas knew very well she was running and knew more than enough about her to decide. 2 more months would not have made any difference. She declared before Jim Gavin .
 
JoeRoberts said:
The members of the Oireachtas knew very well she was running and knew more than enough about her to decide. 2 more months would not have made any difference. She declared before Jim Gavin .
Click to expand...
Jim Gavin wasn't standing as an independent.
The Oireachtas membrs have to be asked \ wooed for their vote. It's not an arranged vote where they have to make a decision.
 
Purple said:
so to RTE, the editorial staff of the Irish Times and Smoked Salmon Socialists in general he's a Neo-Con monster.
Click to expand...

His weekly column is the Irish Times is frequently the most sensible thing in the entire paper.

But his description of himself - in his column defending his refusal to assist with Steen's nomination - as a liberal suggested to me that liberalism has many differing definitions, and some of them are more subjective than others!
 
odyssey06 said:
Jim Gavin wasn't standing as an independent.
The Oireachtas membrs have to be asked \ wooed for their vote. It's not an arranged vote where they have to make a decision
Click to expand...
Oh dear, if only they knew she just needed 2 more nominations on the final day, they must have been very busy with other work......
 
The way we now audition and elect a President is relatively new. Prior to 1990 there were generally either 2 candidates or there was an uncontested incumbent or agreed candidate.

Since 1990 we have had 4 elections. 1990 went haywire due to Lenihan's scandal. 1997 saw Adi Roche taken down by false claims about her brother and republicans. McAleese was accused of having voted for Sinn Féin and for generally being a nationalist - how things have changed with SF supporting the frontrunner in 2025.

The first Internet-era election was 2011 and that was up-ended by RTÉ (inadvertently?) taking Gallagher down. 2018 was the only election ever to have an incumbent President face challengers. Michael D was extremely popular and his re-election was made all the easier by the fact that only judges from Dragon's Den were legally permitted to run against him.

It's funny seeing people argue that the presidency is meaningless, a waste of time/money, etc. while simultaneously claiming that it requires a saint who is somehow both very experienced but also has never said or done anything in any way controversial.

It reminds me of the old joke in Annie Hall:

Two elderly women are at a Catskill Mountains resort, and one says "Boy, the food at this place is really terrible."
The other one says, "Yeah, I know, and such small portions!"
Click to expand...
 
Also the FF contest where Michael Martin wouldn't allow an open contest and let Bertie etc put themselves to an open contest within FF, he was petrified Ahern might win the nomination. It shows the over controlling nature of irish politics and establishment actually.
In UK we have Boris Johnson giving evidence and they are airing all their dirty linen regarding how they handled Covid. The irish inquiry by contrast is being carried out in secret behind closed doors.
 
A bit like putting Dustin into Eurovision, we could have led the way and been the first country to have an AI generated president.
 
odyssey06 said:
They did that and it impacted the wider field but in her case if Steen had gotten her act together earlier I think she could have gotten 20 endorsements from the Oireachtas. More chance of that for her imo than 4 county councils.
Click to expand...

I think she is actually lucky that she didn't run in the end as her subsequent outings in the press have not shown her in a good light. As it turned out she can now claim to be a victim of "the establishment" and her supporters can hold her up as a martyr.
 
arbitron said:
her subsequent outings in the press have not shown her in a good light ......
Click to expand...

I suspect that even if she had walked on water and raised the dead you'd still have filled your peashooter with small grains of rice and aimed it in her general direction.
 
Last edited:
Many people to the right and left of Steen supported her nomination, even if we weren't going to vote for her. Some of us even went so far as to contact members of the Oireachtas to politely request as much.

She became famous for trying (and failing, twice) to deny choice to fellow citizens. Hoepfully she and her supporters finally understand the importance of giving people the options they want, even if it's not what you would choose for yourself.
 
JoeRoberts said:
Oh dear, if only they knew she just needed 2 more nominations on the final day, they must have been very busy with other work......
Click to expand...
Oh dear, if only she had secured the 2 nominations she needed earlier, and sounded out possible backers before they committed to supporting other candidates, she must have been very busy with other work.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top