Bertie does it once more for Fianna Fail
Taoiseach may save day for the party
Monday May 21 2007
ASTOUNDING . . . today's poll could mark the most astonishing turnaround in public sympathies since the shooting of the 1916 leaders.
If it is not a rogue poll (and persons unhappy at the figures will make that claim about any poll), it means that the defining issue in the election has just emerged.
It wasn't the economy, stupid.
And it wasn't health, whatever dear old muddleheads might have thought, even if they imagined this was the pre-eminent issue simply because of the state of our 21st-century hospitals.
It was always Bertie.
A rise of 5pc in Fianna Fail support to the threshhold of the 42pc achieved at the last general election - after a 1997-2002 government whose throughput of legislation and level of achievement puts the 2002-2007 period to shame - can only be laid on the altar of An Taoiseach.
Forgive
While voters may be dissatisfied with various aspects of their daily lives, it seems they will forgive Bertie anything - even the sins of his ministers and the inefficiencies of public services.
The alternative interpretation - that Enda Kenny and Pat Rabbitte are just too repulsive to elect to any kind of high office - is just too cruel to be entertained.
Instead, it seems that neither man can hold a candle to the popularity that is Bertie Ahern. A popularity that seems to have bounced back at last after predictions that there would be no "Bertie bounce" this time out.
Mr Ahern has used the last two weeks to good effect. In particular, it would seem that there is a "Westminster waft" that has filled his flagging sails after an historic address to the joint Houses of Commons and Lords.
With Tony Blair hailing him as among the greatest of Irishmen - and Mr Ahern delivering a genuinely moving address in humble yet forceful terms - it appears many of the electorate wondered why anyone would doubt Bertie at all.
There may still be questions over his financial affairs, but the Taoiseach's statement bought himself breathing space, while a party political broadcast featuring endorsements from the likes of Bill Clinton may have persuaded many that the country would be crazy to ditch the doughty Dub from Drumcondra.
Mr Ahern did win the leaders' debate to boot, moving in to dominate when he sensed that Enda Kenny was too hesitant to seize control.
He has also moved onto good ground to emphasise that he has delivered "Peace and Prosperity" - amply demonstrated in the former case by useful TV pictures of him appearing to disarm Ian Paisley at the site of the Battle of the Boyne. The Fianna Fail leader suggests that now that he has put Northern Ireland to bed he is prepared to have a serious crack at the ailing and all-consuming health service crisis. The people, looking at his record, appear substantially ready to trust him on that pledge.
Meanwhile, one of the old shibboleths of Irish politics seems ready for the shredder. Jack Lynch was deemed the most popular Taoiseach of all time. It can't be true any more, when it seems Bertie Ahern has single-handedly dragged Fianna Fail back close to the glittering prize of a three-in-a-row. Earlier in the campaign, Trevor Sargent described Bertie as "politically a dead man walking". It would seem the dead man has now broken into a bit of a trot.
- Senan Molony
