After four weeks of bad news for the government we are now seeing the Media party mobilising to protect the Covid Queen.
We’ve had attacks on the husband of Judith Collins, and multiple media scolds writing tut-tutting columns telling us off for a variety of sins that include daring to ask hard questions of the Prime Minister, or even mocking her with internet memes.
I don’t think I’ve ever seen a more precious Prime Minister who seeks to have many in the media defend her.
Ironically, the same media she no longer deigns to court when international media give her a much more sycophantic hearing.
Have you noticed too how she no longer fronts the daily press conferences from the podium of truth.
She only does good news, and so it falls to Chris Hipkins to weather the storm of media questioning over the latest mishap in handling the Covid Crisis.
The Prime Minister wants all the plaudits and none of the criticism. That’s not leadership.
It stands to reason that if you take all credit for the good things then you are also responsible for all the bad things too.
The Prime Minister has fallen for the age old trap that most politicians fall for in their careers.
That’s why they still think Kiwibuild was something other than an abject failure.
That’s why they had hundreds of working groups who did nothing and produced even less.
Every single one of their major promises at the last election have been a failure.
Kiwibuild, Light rail, and Child Poverty.
Why then do so many think the Covid Queen has done a grand job when all evidence and previous promises and policies suggest otherwise?
It’s an enigma, but an enigma that will be cracked as more and more people suffer the economic rip tides destroying jobs and businesses.
Campaigning on what you’ve done seems to be a particularly barren field to plough.
Voter want solutions, and those solutions need to be achievable to get us through the economic catastrophe that has befallen us.
That is where Labour will suffer. Their past performance is ordinary at best, and utter failure at the worst.
Can we really trust them to “keep us moving”?
I’m Cam Slater and this is Insight: Politics