Anyone else watch Our brand is crisis on BBC 4 last night ?
If you didn't .. it was a documentary about a team of US political strategists working with a candidate in the Bolivian presidential elections in 2003. The behind the scenes footage showed what a cut-throat business it is and the deep level of cynicism involved. The team included James Carville, the Ragin' Cajun, the man behind Bill Clinton's electoral successes, the man who coined the phrase "It's the economy stupid".
If you did .. did you, like me, have a sense of shock when they referrred to having worked for Fianna Fail on the 2002 General Election ? I thought Martin Macken was the brains behind that operation. I didn't realise that Irish electoral strategy had reached those levels of sophisitication and manipulation.