Election Vacuum: What Will Sunday’s Press Add To Story?
Am I the only one that has been finding the last couple of days of the election campaign a little strange and uneasy? I feel that the respective campaigns have had the collective air sucked out of them first by BertieGate, then Bertie’s absolution at the re-instating of the Northern power-sharing and finally by the Nurses taking their strike-action up a notch.So, what’s happened? Have we made a judgement on who to entrust Ireland Inc over the next five years? Is that why this morning’s Irish Independent poll is blaring that Fianna Fail are up 2 points. I know that the real poll is Election Day, but it must be some kind of comfort to nervous Fianna Fail insiders who sat on the side-lines when last weekend’s stories ate up press inches.
So why the upside to Fianna Fail? Is public opinion hardening against the Nurses in the wake of continuing and widening Industrial action? Have the poll participants turned against Bertie’s media critics and now want to lend their support and their protest vote to FF? I guess the Teflon Taoiseach has a little more left in his arsenal.
The PDs can’t be satisfied with the Irish Independent poll. They are down by a opoint to 2 percent and are flurting with oblivion. All this as they bravely took a stand last weekend against the BertieGate crisis. One wonders what their poll numbers would have been if they had pulled out of government last year when BertieGate blew up. Who’s to say?
Labour must be crowing at the sight of their 3 point jump. Rabbitte has always been an effective election magnet and his speeches ring a little deeper today in midst of industrial unrest and inflationary jumps. And insiders in FG must be scratching their heads wondering what else they have to trot out, especially when polling 3 points down at 28%. Collectively, though, the Rainbow is ahead of the incumbents. Election day will tell.
In the face of this week’s events, I wonder what the hot topic of this Sunday’s headlines will be. Will the hacks blub over the Northern Assembly? Or what will further analysis of Election 07 add to fascinating embroidery of the story?