Frank Luntz is an idiot

RTÉ seems overly keen on putting public money into the pocket of “pollster” Frank Luntz despite his abysmal performance on Week In Politics’ ‘Frank Opinion’ programme.

Luntz has been on RTÉ One and RTÉ Radio 1 over the course of the last 24 hours and has displayed an amazing lack of neutrality and intelligence in his comments, especially when compared to some of the in-depth analysis some of the broadcaster’s guests have been coming out with.

It has been quite obvious from the outset that Luntz had something stuck in his claw
over Fine Gael’s use of the “contract for the people” concept, an idea he devised for the US Republicans in the 1990s. On RTÉ One last night/this morning he claimed that the contract had failed because Kenny wrote it rather than letting the people do it (yeah, like the Republican spin doctors didn’t write their contract) – ignoring the point that it in itself is a hackneyed gimmick and the Irish electorate simply do not respond well to hackneyed gimmicks.

He also seemed aggrieved that Kenny hadn’t thanked/paid him for the idea, almost implying that he was the inventor of contracts themselves and that no-one could make commitments to the people without sacrificing a virgin or two to the almighty Luntz.

Later on Radio 1 Luntz was asked what advice he’d give to Fine Gael – a kind of “what to do next” question. He proceeded to make the point that on his journey from Dublin Airport to his hotel he saw hundreds of posters – more than he’d ever seen before anywhere else. His complaint was that they didn’t say anything. “There’s no caption, no message” he cried.

Of course, any people who have been in Ireland for the last three weeks will know that Fine Gael are (to my knowledge) the only party that put actual commitments on its lamp-post posters.

Just now I’ve listened to him, again on Radio 1, attacking Terry Prone (don’t get me started there) and saying “only in Ireland, when one party gets over 40% of the vote and the other gets 30% of the vote, would that be considered a victory for the smaller party.”

Prone, rightly, pointed out that such a patronising simplification of the situation showed complete ignorance to Ireland’s political system and to the collapse of Fine Gael in 2002. Luntz then made a swipe at Prone for being in the pocket of the politicians she spoke about – which is interesting considering the fact that she works (as I am aware) more with Fianna Fail than Fine Gael.

This may come across as a slightly pro-Fine Gael post, but it’s not. Their contract was never something that interested me and as a gimmick it was never going to work on its own in Ireland.

What Luntz can’t seem to understand, however, is that Fine Gael (and Labour) didn’t lose the election because of the way they presented their policies, they lost it over doubt on the policies themselves. It seems so alien to Luntz to think that the public listened to, analysed and criticised the various party’s policies rather than just swallowed up the buzz words and lapped up the spin.

Luntz cannot think in any terms other than the US Presidential system and has a hard time contemplating the connotations of a debate centred around policy – which much of this campaign thankfully was.

He even announced his confusion over the PR system (and made another patronising remark about Ireland while doing so) showing even more of his absolute and complete ignorance to anything other than flashy images, catchy slogans and soulless promises.

Please RTÉ – get this guy off the airwaves and never waste my money on him again.