Auckland hasn't descended into an alternate reality: we're all going 'huh?' too. I do wonder where these 50% of the country that are Nats supporters are though, I certainly don't know of any.

In Auckland they would be the ones with the landline phones who are prepared to spend time…

I suppose the clamour for policy detail stems from the fear that National's populism (elimination of waste, a tougher law and order posture, tax…

Wammo, didn't you get more frank responses from Dr Brash in his guise as Dr Love?

Well yes and its one of the elements of politics I find very sad. Often the real personality behind veteran and seasoned politicians can get lost in the cut and thrust. So in between…

Brash's "I don't remember" statements were a deliberate tactic. Which does the raise question of whether the wider "bumbling and doddering" which they fitted so neatly into were also deliberate.

I personally wonder whether it was natural behaviour which was played up for tactical effect. Given the option of…

The Bush Dyslexicon describes a president who can talk quite clearly on "the subjects that most interest him: baseball, football, campaign tactics, putting men to death."

On the other hand our President is extraordinarily tongue-tied when he's trying,…

it doesn't have the crisp decisiveness of Clark, and Dunne's restating commonsense approach is less circuitous. Do you think it's a deliberate tactic? Or has his media training just not kicked in yet?

Was Don Brash's public bumbling and doddering a deliberate tactic? Probably not. Endearing perhaps, but not a…

Seriously tho, it's an interesting style; it doesn't have the crisp decisiveness of Clark, and Dunne's restating commonsense approach is less circuitous. Do you think it's a deliberate tactic? Or has his media…

So we should pay National a nice fat salary for 3 years, and let them manage our economy, on trust???????

A question I'd like someone to ask John Key is: how many pages were there to his contract of employment with Merrill Lynch? Or did they just do it on…

You can trust us to honour them because we might get booted out if we don't.

So we should pay National a nice fat salary for 3 years, and let them manage our economy, on trust???????

snort politician snort trust...damn now I have to clean coffee off…

This time they appear to have gone more caustic much earlier. They definately wanmt to own the news narrative of the election and believe it's of Labour losing. But…

You'd think a catchment of what, one and a quarter million people, could support a competing daily newspaper?

(not necessarily a lefty one, just a different one!)

But I think you'll find that it's the Herald itself that has found it's way into an alternative reality, rather than all of Auckland.

If another city's paper was so blatantly sucking up to National, National would probably reciprocate with it instead of the Herald...…