What Being Lisboned Out Might Mean on Friday

Yesterday Simon noted this point regarding Lisbon:

If you sling mud and they sling mud, you know what all the voters see?

People covered in shite.

Yesterday morning Judge Frank Clarke sat in to Newstalk’s studio for a final Q&A on Lisbon. The Chair of the referendum, Clarke was answering questions from everywhere including twitter. The one from Suzy hit the money:

@breakfastnt is justice Clarke looking forward to the end of this as much as the rest of us? #lisbonedout

Clarke did admit he is looking forward to getting back to the bench on Monday and why wouldn’t he? The first part of this campaign was swallowed up in NAMA. Despite the efforts of Michael Martin, Coir, Fine Gael and the left against the treaty, no one was listening. They were preoccupied with the plan to put €54bn into Irish banks. By the time that debate was over with and there were two and a bit weeks to polling day, people began to take notice.

What they have gotten is a campaign of shrill noise, slanging, claim and counter claim with most voters caught, bemused, in the cross-fire. The campaign is less about what is in the treaty (unlike last time) and sucessfully moved to the ground of what happens if we vote yes or no. That ground suits the yes side as the treaty specifics are if anything far from specific. They are open to interpretation and subsequent political points for both sides.

The focus on aftereffects and the willingness of both sides to throw plenty of mud and digs meant we got ourselves a good US campaign. This is unlike a General Election where negative campaigns have a different genealogy and take a different form. This is most certainly the politics of the death panel and our voters are in the middle.

This noise turns people off, they don’t know what to believe and aren’t sure who to trust. The question of whether the pick one or the other to trust – or neither – will determine turnout and that in turn will determine the outcome. Who wins though?