Cowen’s Efforts to Get the Fianna Fail Party Moving

Blink and you would miss it, a speech written to get traction with the press on how Cowen is ‘getting a grip of the campaign’ and taking it ‘by the scruff of the neck’ to bring his demoralised troops over the line kicking and screaming. Like when he intervened in the general election 2007, the ground was set for Cowen to kick off the ‘famed Fianna Fail machine’.  So effective was this speech that it got, well, not a lot of space this morning.

Unsurprisingly the TNS/MRBI poll knocked it out of the water. His post-speech presser was all defensive and the great offence was immediately aborted. This is a big mistake for his schedulers to make. Immediately today at his presser in Kilarney he was on the back foot – have a listen.

[display_podcast]

The speech was a rousing of the faithful, a battler against the opposition and it mattered not one jot – people have switched off from Cowen in a way they didn’t from Fianna Fail in 2007. Cowen has the attention needed to command attention, perhaps on the ground people are responding but speeches like this (and their carriage in the media) are vital for the party faithful nationwide to respond to. Cowen cannot be everywhere, this speech didnt even cause a ripple and it had enough ammo.

Enda Kenny and Eamon Gilmore are the Spinning Jennies. People are too smart to believe these simple bogey man stories. The people know it takes more than guff and bluster. It will take hard work, serious commitment and a focus on success to see us through.

No-one needs to tell Fianna Fail that things are tough at the moment. No one needs to tell you that. We know it. We feel it every day. But the opposition should stop trying to fool the people that it’s all down to Government. It does no justice to the size of the problem, and it suggests magic wand solutions that are frankly not possible.

Not a peep aside from this in the indo today. No one is listening and that is perhaps the worst sign of all for an Taoiseach.