Witness to History

Happy Monday, friends!

Here’s a little glimpse of my Saturday for you:

{Mini photo shoot in Temple Bar. Ha! You’ll see why in a few days – all will be revealed!}

But now, watch out, I’m talking politics today.

It was a surreal weekend in the news here. Lots going on in our neck of the woods. On Saturday, Taoiseach Brian Cowen announced he’d step down as the head of his party, Fianna Fail, while remaining the leader of parliament until the March elections. He said he believed he was needed to steward the nation through the next few months. Debatable.

Then Sunday, the Green Party announced they were pulling out of the coalition with Cowen’s party, meaning there will need to be an election sooner than it was scheduled for March 11th. I haven’t figured out when the election will happen, but my guess is a few weeks? Eek, that’s soon.

At the moment, it seems there’s really no one leading the country. I’d probably argue that no one has been running the country since Mr. Cowen was elected, but at this very minute, I think we’re up the creek without any hope of a paddle.

On Saturday morning, I heard a re-play of a radio interview with the Taoiseach from earlier in the week. I thought he was going to strangle the interviewer, he was so angry. There was no calm, cool, collected; he didn’t inspire confidence. Instead, he sounded snarky and spiteful. He even defended his decision not to hire a public relations staffer because, he said, he was “in the business of substance,” not personality politics.

{Image from here. I had to stop myself from putting together a photo montage of Mr. Cowen. Not very nice to kick a guy when he’s down.}

He also defended the interviewer’s allegation that Fianna Fail is in bed with the developers, because high profile developers were invited to the Galway Races Fianna Fail tent, by telling the interviewers how many other race tents his developer friends were in. If I were any one of his staffers, let alone a PR staffer, I would have been standing outside the studio, banging my head against the wall.

If only Mr. Cowen could have learned to communicate his (alleged) work on the substance in a way the people of Ireland could have understood, appreciated or been inspired by. He might have had a fighting chance. Instead, he’s been a joke for quite some time.

Only a few months ago, he could have used a minder or two – it might have kept him from staying out at the pub for too many drinks, leading a sing-along and then calling in to an early morning radio interview sounding like he hadn’t been to bed the night before.

I hesitate to make judgments about Mr. Cowen’s work on the substance, but I do take issue with his assertion that communication doesn’t matter.

If I ever had a passion in my political career (it was short-lived, 3 years and too cut throat for this lady!), it was helping candidates express their stances and stories in such a way that voters could <span style=”font-style:italic;”>feel</span> them. And I’d argue there’s nothing more important. In my book, a politician has got to be able to express to constituents empathy, impetus or passion in a way that moves people. If you can’t do that convincingly, when things get rough, you’ll go down with the ship.

Even though Mr. Cowen isn’t directly elected by the people, the people still need and crave leadership and direction, especially in this tough economic climate.

And there’s certainly no way they’re going to get it from the figurehead president or the figurehead Dublin mayor or the guy who knows he has a communication problem but refuses to get a little help in that department.

This weekend, I have been trying to get all this straight. It’s very complicated. Once there’s a new leader of Fianna Fail (I think I’m rooting for former minister for Foreign Affairs, Micheal Martin. He never seems angry or spiteful; he’s always calm and seems to have the gravitas a leader should have.)

But then, I’m pretty certain after a new leader of Fianna Fail is elected, they’ve got to sort out what parties are aligning with each other, and then they’ll elect another Taioseach?

In the meantime, with everyone running around, re-aligning, trying to get themselves into the leadership positions, who is actually running the show?

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What do you think? Correct me if I’ve got it wrong! I’d love to hear your opinions!