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McDowell undertakes kamikaze mission, enlivens debate in the process
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Adore him or abhor him, when McDowell’s on form he’s always entertaining. In tonight’s debate, he was the lynchpin; he was a foil to the earnestness of Sargent, a bully who refused to let Adams away with attempts to avoid discussing paramilitarism and a constant antagonist to Rabbitte.
More than anyone (Mark Little included) he attempted to dictate the terms of the debate.
He constantly derided the three party leaders for their implicit left-wing ideology, describing them as ‘ideologues’ and ‘anti-jobs, anti-enterprise’. He smacked down Adams when the SF leader began talking about plans to sustain economic growth (”Gerry, you know absolutely no basic figures or basic facts [about the economy]. Every time Mark has asked you a question you’ve changed the subject to the peace process or the health service, because you just don’t know“). He slammed all three parties at once for their stance(s) on immigration (”You are not trustworthy on the issue of immigration. The left opposed every single step of my attempts to control immigration”).
It was a fierce, all-guns-blazing, kamikaze-style performance; if you were a fan of him beforehand then you would have loved this. If you always hated him then this was simply more ammunition (check out the fierce debates on boards.ie and politics.ie over whether he’s an evil genius or just evil).
The reaction of the three leaders was interesting. Adams at first seemed vaguely removed, possibly going through the motions, before McDowell got two killer jabs in. Firstly, Adams was talking about how SF-ers all draw the average industrial wage and give the rest to the party, when McDowell butted in: “What about your house in Donegal, Gerry? How was that paid for?”. Mark Little interjected so Adams never got a rebuttal in.
Shortly after, McDowell claimed that Adams “sold provo know-how to the FARC guerillas in Colombia in exchange for 25 million US dollars”. Adams responded by saying that the remark proved McDowell wasn’t worthy to be the Minister for Justice, but he was definitely more subdued afterwards.
Within minutes of the debate starting, Sargent was already wound-up, interrupting, talking over and getting clearly angrier by the minute with what McDowell was saying. It didn’t make for great tv. However when he calmed down and actually spoke about Green Party policies instead of just rising to McDowell’s bait, he was at his strongest – clear, articulate and direct.
Rabbitte, to his credit, never rose to McDowell’s taunting, simply giving that smug little Mona Lisa smile of his the whole time. He refused to let McDowell make the economy the central issue of the debate (”The crucial issue for the Irish people is whether the economy is still growing, whether our kids will have jobs”). Instead, he pointed out that with the PD’s currently sitting at 2-3% in the opinion polls and in danger of imploding, Irish people were clearly concerned with a lot of other issues aside from the economy:
“The more Michael attacks me personally and denigrates my party, the more it just makes us look better. The fact of the matter is that the Irish people are passing judgment on the efficacy of Michael’s performance in government. Does anyone think that our hospitals are adequate? That our streets are safer since he’s been in government? No”.
Following on from John Gormley’s very public accusations earlier this afternoon that McDowell was simply making up lies about the Green Party’s policy stances, Sargent took him to task over the immigration issue.
McDowell had gone on a sustained riff about how ‘the left’ opposed every single step of his attempts to ‘control immigration’ (noting that 80% of voters had supported his citizenship referendum but handily ignoring the fact that the turnout was one of the lowest in the history of the state), when he was cut off, first by Rabbitte and then Sargent, who accused McDowell of “trying to smear other parties saying that they want to relax immigration laws”, an exercise he described as “pedalling untruths”.
“The PD’s are pedallers of untruths. They say we [the Green Party] want to end gated communities. They say we want to up corporation tax – complete fantasies. We want to keep the same immigration laws”.
The debate was a lot stronger than I’d expected it to be; rather than focus on a few major issues, a whole host of them were dealt with – immigration, crime, drugs, the economy, health, suicide (momentarily). Yes, it fell back to clichés and rhetoric at times, but it was also lively and sparky, with a few genuinely great moments of debate.
Adams surprised me; he came across as a lot more wooden then I’d expected. He brought up some good issues (suicide for instance) but somehow just didn’t seem convincing. Sargent, when he wasn’t on the verge of losing his temper, was good.
Rabbitte also surprised me. Yes, at times he came across as smug which is still his greatest problem, but I thought he was the strongest of the four leaders (and that is a sentence I didn’t think I’d be typing after this debate). He did a good job of putting across Labour policies, making them clear and accessible, but still dealing with the issue of how they’d manage the economy. I liked how he dealt with McDowell by simply laughing at him and pointing out the flaws/outright lies in what he was saying. I wasn’t entirely convinced by his denial that they’d ever go into government with FF (RTE seem convinced however) but overall, surprisingly impressive.
And McDowell? Last sting of a dying wasp. Entertaining though.
Best quote of the evening was – well obviously the Paris Hilton one, but there were a couple of other good ones too.
Rabbitte: The health service is a community service, not a commodity from which to profit
Adams: No right-thinking person would vote for the PD’s
McDowell: I’m sitting here with the left, the hard left and the left-overs
NB: Not all the quotes are verbatim, as tbh I couldn’t always type fast enough to catch exactly what they were saying. I’ll watch it again later today and clear up any inaccuracies. Probably.
Mc Dowell would be a great comedian. He shamed Adams very well! And the best of it was, he didn’t tell a lie where Gerry was concerned – it was established long ago tht he had dealings with those three men!
Were we watching the same debate. Pat Rabbitte was terrible you could have replaced him with one of his youtube video’s and utter automaton.
This debate was all about McDowell and Sargent. McDowell engergiesed his base wlopped Adams. Sargent was great. Use of acedotes was impressive in contrast to Rabbittee focus group slogans worked well. It looked like he did not care. McDowell and Trevor seemed to be the only ones actually caring about the future and willing to speak from the heart not script (save left-overs joke which was poor). Trevor was the only one to make any dent on McDowell and made a substantial one on business tax.
You could have just had a debate with Trevor and McDowell the others save for joke factor of Adams were irrelevant.
By far the best two parties leaders in Ireland.
A great round-up.
I must say I was suprisingly impressed by Trevor Sargent, although I laughed out loud when I spotted that he had a ton of cheat notes written all over the palm of his hand! If they went on to discuss foreign policy, I’d say he would have had to roll up his sleeve. Mind you – fair play to the guy – it was exactly what I would have done, and I think it made him more human.
Adams attempts to dodge EVERY SINGLE QUESTION was breathtaking! It was like he’d had a bet on that he could change the subject everytime he spoke. Also, I thought that trying to crowbar in “I just want to discuss suicide” was just a pathetic, cheap, low shot. As if any of the leaders would argue against it. It wasn’t on the agenda because everyone agrees – there’s no point having a debate where everyone says the same thing. It was just a disgusting way to try to score brownie points. What’s next Gerry? “I just want to take this time to reflect on the victims of the stardust fire”?
I thought Michael McDowell was brilliant. He showed what an incompetent blithering idiot he really is. Cheap shots, retheroic and blatant lies are the way forward in politics in this country. Gerry Adams was very subdued. Some one should tell him that facts and human rights have no place in Irish politics. It’s all about sustaining wealth and feeding the new found greed that is consuming us all! That’s progress. Real progress. Look at the USA. Surly we should emulate this capitalist giant. Pat Rabbits Cheshire cat impressions were great. Trevor Sergeants saving the world by reducing carbon emissions was bordering on insanity. Hugging trees may be a more suitable profession for him!
It’s time the media got over their obsession with asking Pat Rabbitte if he would go into government with FF. It’s like every journalist wants to get the ’scoop’. It’s all about humiliating the guy. Every dog in the street knows that if the numbers aren’t there for the Rainbow there’s a good chance Labour will talk with FF. Big deal – that’s politics. Rabitte has managed not to categorically rule this out through acts of verbal acrobatics. This is completely understandable. Is he really going to categorically refuse the opportunity to form a government if the has the numbers to do so? RTE should cop on.
I think McDowell would make a better journalist than Minister for Justice or Tanaiste. If he loses his seat one of the papers should nab him.
Adams avoiding facts and figures about economics? Nothing new there. SF are trading on his image bigtime in this election – you’d think they’d brief him a bit more about what’s going on down south, although in fairness I’ve yet to be convinced by any of their politicians on the facts and figure of managing an economy. Their pious generalities are wearing very thin.
Mc Dowell is only a pseudo fascist, unlike myself. I’ll represent the silent minorities in our society ie the rich and affluent. It’s time we made the rich richer and the poor work harder.
http://www.ndd.ie
How can anyone regard Gerry Adams as the Sinn Feins greatest asset . The man had no grasp of the facts and is clearly an idiot. Fair paly to Michael Mc Dowell. He may very well be less than useless but a least he came to debate which is more than you can say for Pat Rabitte who had a look on his face that suggested he was constipated. As for The guy from the Green Party, the cog notes written up his arm were amusing.
Oh the fun! I’ve never sat down with a bag of popcorn to watch a debate before, but if there’s going to be more like this I want to see it.
Rabbitte clearly came out best of the four, he was more controlled and reasonable than usual but managed to show his passionate side on issues like the health service. McDowell showed an amazing amount of pettiness more suited to a college society’s post-debate drinking session (see Rabbitte’s quote, below) and really showed the desperation of the PDs, although he did provide great entertainment. Sargent came off very well, his earnestness is probably his best feature, he’s very credible. Adams was surprisingly very disappointing – his speech was wooden and he relied far too much on his notes, while he obviously didn’t have the facts to back up any of his arguments.
Best moments:
- The camera resting on a smirking Rabbitte for ages while the spat was heating up between McDowell and Adams.
- McDowell’s response to Adams’ assertion that ‘the bank owns’ his house – ‘ I bet the Northern Bank doesn’t own it!’ Priceless
- The Paris Hilton analogy
- Rabbitte’s reprimand to McDowell, harking back to their UCD days ‘We’re not in the L&H now Michael’
- MCDowell’s ‘the left, the hard left, and the leftovers’ comment
I think what people need to remember about Pat Rabbitte is that he didn’t need to be there. He had nothing to gain and everything to lose from the debate. Nobody who is considering voting for Labour would ever vote for Fine Gael. The Greens are his allies. And by attacking Adams so strongly, McDowell helped the Labour cause.
I think what people need to remember about Pat Rabbitte is that he didn’t need to be there. He had nothing to gain and everything to lose from the debate. Nobody who is considering voting for Labour would ever vote for the PDs. The Greens are his allies. And by attacking Adams so strongly, McDowell helped the Labour cause.
The Opposition benches are going to be substantially improved by having McDowell on them in the next Dail.