I'll actually leave our host to decide what's permissible discourse around here, and suggest you step away from the disingenuous naivete about the soundbite culture that so often passes for political debate in this country. Sorry, but if you think Key wouldn't have the racist card dealt against him…

Step away from the strawman, Craig. It'll give you hayfever.

Nicely put.

I'd have been quite happy for Key to have said "Well, I was 20 years old, living in the halls of residence, drinking beer and enjoying rugby, so, yes, I was pro-Tour. But history shows I was wrong."

Or fashioned a "I was pro-tour because I believe it's not the…

Kyle, you don't get Rod's game. He knows the Nats want this to go away. Only people like him stand to gain from further publicity of the inner workings of National at the moment.

I think he and ACT stand to gain, but only at the expense of National. I…

For God's sake – no kidding it's a sensible strategy for Key to not disclose bugger-all about himself in order to vote maximize and minimize potential supporter alienation.

I don't agree with you on this Peasant – I think we agree on other matters however.

I think leaders must state…

If the leaks were 'criminal' then National would be jumping up and…

It will be interesting to see what the email thieves have to say when they are caught: email thieves will be caught.

Seriously, if they get caught, I suspect they'll have to say "I resign from my current position in the national party".

Rodney hide is an idiot. I mean…

But now...

Craig Y (suspicious)

"...he may well win the day by means which none of you have so far taken into consideration. By not staking out ideological or territory he is coating himself in teflon and making himself less vulnerable to attack."

It's not a new angle, it's the same angle Brash tried.…

I'm not asking for deep analysis. I'd just like somebody to ask him what he believes, and when and why he started believing it. That's not so hard.

Joanne Black's article in the latest Listener is another example of this "don't ask, don't tell" approach. She says "his background…

Getting Desmond Tutu to testify at his trial...

My feeling is that Key may be a man of careful…

Well, Nick, when you've got serious analysis about the impact of this weird but ultimately trivial 'gaffe' was the final nail in…

Perhaps it was not evasiveness but rather he did not have an opinion on the matter and stumbled as he realised he could not make one up on the spot.

At least it seems clear he was not given the questions in advance. That's better than answers prepared the night…

Well, Russell, if Key had said what you suggest, it takes precisely zero imagination to pick the soundbite he'd be hit over the head with for the rest of his life: "...yes, I was pro-Tour."

He sort of did, in the end.

Cause we all know anyone was was pro-Tour…

Amen his bum looks big when he pretends to not remember the Tour. A really big arse. A really big, insincere calculating arse.

It has precisely nothing to do with racism, tour support, or avoiding misquotation. It's just about being green.…

Oh, yes they are. Ever listened (and I use that word advisedly) to Lou Reed's Metal Machine Music – which is sixty four minutes of feedback. It's horrible, and tedious beyond endurance – much like Sean Plunkett when they forget to…

I'd have been quite happy for Key to have said "Well, I was 20 years old, living in the halls of residence, drinking beer and enjoying rugby, so, yes, I was pro-Tour. But history shows I was wrong."

It was the evasiveness that I found odd.

Perhaps it was not…

Well, yes they are, but so is 'gotcha' soundbite interviews. I feel a small grain of sympathy for politicans who must feel like every word, every move is another round of "does my bum look big in this?"
I'm not…

Before we go off thinking Bill English is all that, I guess we should bear in mind this bit of gibberish about the Civil Unions Bill, pointed out to me a reader.

I really hate how this stuff about child in married families doing better than children in split families…

Oh, and I bet you know plenty of people who are co-habitating and raising children…

It was the evasiveness that I found odd.

Well, Russell, if Key…

Some of the rank BS that stood out for me:

Being married with kids is just out of fashion.

…

I respect his candour, but if he was the new leader of the Labour Party he'd be fucking mad to say any such thing.

I'd have been quite happy for Key to have said "Well, I was 20 years old, living in the halls of residence, drinking beer and enjoying…

Let's see... um:

millionaire banker,
white middle class male,
joined the Party for one reason alone,
allegedly socialist early background brought to see the light of neoconservatism in later life,
politically naive from being parachuted…

He's not much of a speller either – or are "defector couples" closet Russians?

The common theme here seems to be that the most telling thing is not that John Key had an opinion about the…

New Zealand faces many problems today, and we need someone with no vision, no nous, and no committment to any kind of political ideas whatsoever if we're going to face them with mediocrity.

Mate, add "apathy" and I was clearly born to rule.

Obviously, at this stage, he's selling himself as centrist. The real question is whether this is accurate. That he has vacillated on every issue…

But I do feel bound to make the comparison with Colin James' interview with his deputy, Bill English, for the Weekend Herald. English uses the interview to clearly mark out his philosophy and beliefs, his religious faith included. It's quite crisp.

Agrred. Now, I can't find it online, but the…

My wariness stems from an Agenda interview Key did earlier this year in which Lisa Owen attempted to 'flesh out'…

I really…

He says he wasn't big for him a the time then we find out that

1. He was in his first year at uni at the tme (how can it not be a big thing while you were at uni?!)

2. he was…

I guess the consolation is the fact that (apprently – I think you quoted someone on it Russell?) the high water mark of Fundamentalism has been…