I’ve had a few calls the past couple of days, and a few comments, about my stance on Todd Muller.
They run along the lines that I should give the guy a chance to settle down and find his feet.
Not to put too much of a fine point on it, but that is just bollocks. Let me explain a few things for you.
I don’t have a stance on Todd Muller, other than treating him the same as any other politician. If he does well he will get praise, if he stuffs up he will get slayed.
This is not a place for sycophancy or cult like adulation of the latest person to wear blue y-fronts. This is a place where I call things as I see them.
I have an advantage over most people in this regard. I’ve got over 40 years playing this beautiful game of politics. I am very good at reading body language and micro-expressions and after a lifetime of involvement I can sum someone up pretty well just by watching a few videos of speeches or interviews. I watch them with the sound off first, then with the sound on, and then just listen to them with no video. I can tell when they are lying and I can tell the rehearsed lines from their body language, their eyes and facial expressions and lastly by their voice. I can do this quicker than most, and so can make a pretty fast judgment on things.
That doesn’t mean I’m always right, but the more data I collect the more accurate I get.
I call things as I see them and I don’t do it to merely criticise, but rather in the hope that they will listen.
If they choose not to listen, then that isn’t my problem.
I truly want National to do better. Sadly, from what I see they show no willingness to improve. There is always a ready excuse for them to NOT do something.
Have you ever wondered why the National party board never seems to change? Well, it is because every time someone decides they want to challenge for a position they are talked out of it by senior people on the basis that the timing isn’t right. It’s either election year, or the year after an election or they don’t want the boat rocked. The National party is all about the status quo.
The same goes for the leadership. There was never any suggestion of a challenge to John Key simply because he kept winning, but when it looked a bit tough he decided to cut and run. He could have fought and likely won another election, but he would have had to deal with Winston Peters. Instead, he took off and left Bill English to run things.
Don’t get me wrong here, despite my personal animosity towards Bill English, he was a very fine and capable Minister of Finance, but that was all. He was and still is a nasty piece of work behind the scenes and a very poor leader who demanded respect and subservience rather than earning respect.
Good leaders do OK, great leaders take others with them, and truly exceptional leaders develop a winning culture that endures. Bill English was none of those. Anyone who dared to point out that the emperor had no clothes was rinsed. John Key was a good to great leader, but he failed to build that winning culture or develop a succession plan, hence he can never be seen as truly great. You can finesse that argument all you want but the results since John Key departed tells you everything you need to know.
Which brings us to the current situation and that inaction that typifies the National party. When I was criticising Simon Bridges it wasn’t out of animosity, at least until he decided he was prepared to gamble with people’s lives. From that point on it was animosity. But you know what, I don’t blame Simon Bridges for that, he simply carried on the environment built and fostered by Bill English and Paula Bennett. He might well have been a better leader had he not relied on Paula Bennett as his deputy.
His demise can be sheeted home to her evil presence shadowing over the caucus. He doesn’t yet realise that on the Thursday before his downfall, Paula Bennett was ringing MPs and telling them to vote for Simon, that it was alright, she’d cut a deal for him to stand down gracefully in a month and then she and Mark Mitchell would lead them to the promised land. It’s true, that was her pitch. No wonder there was tears from her and Mitchell on the Friday after their machinations were rumbled and then destroyed.
I had hoped that Simon Bridges would improve, but he never did. His ratings are as bad now as they ever were. The party vote stayed high despite him not because of him. National’s caucus gave him two and half years to find his feet, but he never did. Now National apologists are saying the same thing.
‘Give Todd Muller a chance to find his feet’.
The problem is that he simply doesn’t have time to find his feet. There are just 96 days until voting begins on September 1st and people are saying that Todd Muller needs to find his feet?
This is not turnsies, where everyone gets a go. This is politics and it is game time all the time. That is even more important in election years, and this year even more so with what is at stake.
Todd Muller doesn’t have time to find his feet. He should already know where they are, have pulled on some socks and laced up his big game boots and be at it with gusto.
He wants to be Prime Minister, the big job. You don’t get time to find your feet in that game. It’s game on from the get go and it is clear that, despite a year in the planning and the recruitment of some talented people, there has only been a plan to roll Simon Bridges. There appears to be no other plan with just 96 days to go until voting starts.
That’s not good enough. That is short-sighted.
He’s only got one go at this, he loses and he’s toast.
He’s come to the big game with nothing other than glib corporate weasel words like “looking through the lens of”, “bringing learnings…”, “we need to have conversations about…” and describing things using words like fundamentally and tremendous.
Should I give him time to find his feet?
No, absolutely not. This is for real, there are no second chances.
He should not have been able to be bested by the lightweight hectoring of Jack Tame, or the sheila on Radio NZ or Ryan Bridge. He should have owned those interviewers. He should not have capitulated over a stupid hat. It’s not even signed by Donald Trump so it hardly counts as even memorabilia. And he should have slapped Labour back hard over Maori in his line up.
Labour attacked Simon Bridges and Paula Bennett for not being the right sort of Maori. Now they are attacking for National not having any Maori. This is the problem for National when they try and play the woke cards and the zero-sum game of arguing over inter-sectionality of diverse interest groups. They can’t win by being as left as the left.
They can only win by showing excellence and courage, not mediocrity and cowardice.
Do I want Todd Muller to do well?
The answer is, yes.
But I will not go easy on him because he needs to find his feet. I will go harder so that he might improve. The rest is up to him.
Personally, I don’t think he’s got it in him. What we saw these past few days is the real Todd Muller. Sadly I think he has about 120 days left as leader of the National party. But I’d love him to prove me wrong.
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