Like an elf picking his way across a dangerous river, all he has to do is look out for the small smooth stepping stones, ignoring the tempting delights of the seemingly innocuous rocks which carry within them potential slips that could see him splash into the water. And before each leap, he must take a look left and then right. And if he can do that, then the gates of the Phoenix Park will beckon before him, the lush grass inviting him inside, rewarding him for a lifetime of service. Yes, that is just how close Galway is to having its first ever Uachtarain na hEireann. For a county that has provided leaders in almost every other sphere apart from Taoiseach and President, it is now very likely that Michael D will go into the last few weeks of the election campaign with the prize being his to lose. Althought there is many a slip twixt the cup and the lip, the manner in which the presidential debate has descended into verbal street-fighting has done a lot of the work for the Labour candidate.
With just three weeks left until polling day. it seems that all Michael D has to do is to stay out of the interminable rows that have characterised this week of the election and which are doing nothing but make the rest of the candidates appear anything but presidential. On Tuesday night’s debate, Higgins was able to take a step back and watch as right from the off, three of the candidates tore into each other, taking strips off each other while proclaiming to desire the top prize in order to be a unifying force, to make the country proud, to save the Constitution.
In this motley crew, he looked a class apart and it is this approach that he will need to maintain if he is to stay ahead for the remainder of the campaign. However this is not to say that he is not able to look after himself. Au contraire, he is armed with a vast vocabulary and a quick brain to enable himself to get out of most situations without the use of waffle and hyperbole.
The Norris campaign is getting more and more complicated and ridiculous by the day — For a man who proclaims his life is an open book, there do seem to be many pages that are stuck together. The Mitchell approach was never going to appeal to voters outside The Pale, but the McGuinness vote will be solid and will appeal to a large cross section who do not care when he says he left the IRA. Mary Davis and Sean Gallagher have managed to link themselves to Government and power, while Dana ( a close neighbour of mine, I must admit ) will appeal to many people as a guardian angel protecting the copy of the Constitution which she clasps to her bosom at all times.
One hopes that the campaign continues to heat up, although this weekend it will be sidelined by the attempts of our national soccer and rugby teams to advance their quests for glory in New Zealand and Andorra. We wish all the candidates and Irish teams the best as they continue to entertain us in very different ways in the weeks to come.
