Clark starts nasty

It’s good having Hooton blogging, because he often covers something before I do, so I can be lazy and quote him:

Tonight’s TVNZ and TV3 news coverage of the first day of campaigning was a clear win for John Key, with the networks showing the National leader attempting to cross the traditional political divide (which positions him as a unifier) by going to the Otara market, in contrast to their coverage of Helen Clark’s efforts to smear him and play class war (positioning her as a hater and wrecker).  TVNZ highlighted Clark’s claim that Key’s day campaigning in South Auckland was “a tribute to his power of self-delusion” while TV3’s preferred quote from her was “I suspect he was a bit like a tourist there. He should have stuck to what he really believes and gone to the Northern Club.”  What a nasty piece of work she came across as.  This is not the way to win an election.

A nasty piece of work indeed. Imagine a National Prime Minister telling a Labour Opposition Leader to fuck off out of Remuera because he/she doesn’t fit in, and should stick to Cannons Creek or something. Cheap, and nasty indeed.

But as Matthew points out, we are usefully being tutored on the difference between negative and dirty:

Already, of course, the Prime Minister’s Office is saying that what Clark did today was “negative” but not “dirty”.  A nice attempt to try to spin the situation – but still, after one day, I would say it is Key 1 Clark 0.

The part I found most amusing from the linked post is this part:

While we’re on the topic, when Helen Clark said ‘hard hats on’ to Labour supporters, contrary to what the commentariat seem to think,  that did not mean ’get ready for a dirty campaign’. It meant ‘get ready to work hard’.

How incredible. They know what the Prime Minister meant by her comments. Is this mind reading at work?