October 16, 2008 8:11am by David Farrar

What a sore loser

I can’t believe Helen Clark’s antics since she lost the Leader’s Debate – her nasty side has been out for all to see.

First we had that comment during the debate:

“You might be used to shouting people down at home, but you’re not shouting me down”

Now I hadn’t even blogged on this previously, as everyone says something they regret. But it was very bad taste to imply that Key shouts his wife down, with all the implications that carries. The more you think about that comment, the more nasty you realise it was. Now if she had just left it alone, I’d be inclined to give her a pass and say it was just an unfortunate turn of phrase she used. But then yesterday her justifications were appalling:

“What I meant was he was having a tantrum. He was completely out of control trying to shout me down when I was telling the truth about our policy and he was telling fibs about it and I said you’re not going to carry on like that.”

A tantrum? Completely out of control? You mean like the implicit wife beater you were suggesting? And of course anyone watching the debate saw a smiling relaxed John Key, not a man having a tantrum. Really Clark needs to just accept she did not perform that well, and Key did.

Then we have the further bizarre stuff about how he only got given credit for not collapsing:

THEN AND NOW

Helen Clark, immediately after the debate:
It was a good old-fashioned debate on the issues. I hope that means we’ve banished any idea that this is a bitter kind of election debate. I think people want to hear us being up front, straight on.

Helen Clark, yesterday afternoon:
Expectations were low, firstly because people hadn’t seen him in a debate before and secondly because he had a disastrous start to the campaign. So the fact he didn’t collapse with a stress attack on the set probably gave him marks.

If anyone is stressed it seems to be Helen. She also said: