Who's the right man for the Job?

Yes it has been a quick seven years since the whole Dana queen business of the former Eurovision winners feeble launch at taking over the Áras. I remember Mary MacAleese speaking in my school at the time way back in 2004. She was the perfect Irish President - uncontroversial, irrelevant and without opinion. In fact the most outrageous thing she seemed to do as president was take communion in an Anglican Church. She has not been mentioned once in the Economic debate that has consumed our lives even though she saw over much of the financial crisis in her fourteen years in office. Rightly so you might say, she of all people had no part in our current situation but this just shows us the relevancy of the office of president. For many people there lives have changed in her second term as president. Some people thought they could outdo Mary by building bigger properties than hers. Then NAMA came after them!

The upcoming presidential election will no doubt like all elections in Ireland be overhyped and anticlimactic. The campaign began almost a year ago to the day when Fergus Finlay signalled his intention for the Labour Party nomination. He lost out to the political establishment. So for the past year we've had the misfortune of having to endure the endless explanations of candidates explaining what they are going to do as president. They are all wrong in the answers they have given. The correct answer is 'nothing.'

Because of this nobody is interested in peoples policies and framework if they get into office so the media have had to resort to unearthing every last detail about potential candidates. It comes down to who has got the squeakiest clean record ultimately and who can keep out of controversy. Hence the lack of campaigning by Michael D. Higgins. He thinks he can win the election bunkered up in his Galway house having not to face us. If I were his campain manager I would tell him to do the exact same because this way he dodges the sizable amount of landmines out there. The other candidates have the charisma of peanut which quantifies them well as president.

Thankfully Gay Byrne and other public people have not become candidates because they still have some service to give to the people of Ireland!

Enjoy and share,
Media Guru.