THE REVENGE OF THE FIANNA FÁIL CHOIRBOY
THE launch of the Fianna Fáil campaign was a quieter affair than we are used to. Time was, during the Bertie Ahern and PJ Mara era, when there was more dry ice and theatre than you would find at a Queen concert.
The great spin-doctor Mara caught the mood in 2002 when he strolled into the room clicking his fingers saying: ‘It’s showtime, folks.’
There were no bells and whistles for Micheál as he took the stage with two extras – Dara Calleary and Catherine Ardagh.
We have moved from showtime to the age of the Cork choirboy where Fianna Fáil are now trying to be more moral than Fine Gael.
The spectacle of Micheál the Fianna Fáil choirboy has occasioned much laughter amongst those of us who have been around politics for far too long for our own good.
Micheál does not mind the laughter, though.
They laughed at Micheál when he signalled his leadership intentions far too early in the age of Bertie, and Pat Rabbitte christened him ‘the Petit Dauphin’.
His own laughed at him when Charlie McCreevy, watched by a smirking Bertie, threw Micheál and his very expensive health plan out the window in 2002.
His own party – which liked drink, roistering and porter far too much for our good, let alone theirs – laughed at his choirboy tendencies on the food and alcohol front.
Fine Gael and Labour laughed when, heading a party of 21 after the great defeat of 2011, Micheál pledged a return to power for Fianna Fáil.
The decibels went up even further in Fine Gael when Leo succeeded Enda. The laughing has stopped now. At his party’s first press event of the campaign, Micheál was a man totally in control. The choirboy is perfectly designed for a society seeking reassurance and some level of gentle paternal authority.
At the Fianna Fáil launch, he defined the election battle in simple, clear terms as being between ‘more of the same’ versus change.
The aspirant Dauphin sharply noted that in that regard, the Fine Gael excuses for failures in health and housing are the same as four years ago.
He sharply added that since then, ‘they’ve changed their leader but they haven’t changed their excuses’.
As Micheál dismissed the apparent willingness of the
Government to ‘go low and personal to win’, the most intriguing element of the conference was not so much what Micheál said as the poise with which he said it.
Success in politics is often about maintaining the appearance of control and Micheál is beginning to acquire that winning look.
This is a leader who is utterly in control.
It helps that the mood of the country appears to be one of safety first, for temperance is at the core of his offering.
Like his role model Jack Lynch, Micheál is a man of the belief that a little of what you like is good for you – but not too much. Particularly tax cuts. Still, in an uncertain world, one thing has changed, and changed utterly. No one is laughing at Micheál. The revenge of the Cork choirboy is at hand.
The Dauphin is four weeks away from being king, unless Leo can come up with something very special to stop him.
And so far the signs of that are slim.