Presidential Election

thedaras said:
Oh dear..did posters watch the debate on RTE with Pat Kenny?
Best view of the year for me..even worth the price of the licence!
It was unbelievable ,Im sure it will be up on the player soon
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It was fantastic. I was keeping an eye on Betfair. Gallagher started the program at 1/4 and finished it at 2/1. Gallagher made every mistake in the book. "I don't recollect (collecting 5K from some guy for Ff)". "I do remember now, that guy was a fuel smuggler". "I don't know how much money he gave, it was in an envelope". And the crowd were practically boohing him.
 
All along Sean Gallagher was playing down his Fianna Fail links. Now I think Fianna Fail will try to play down there Sean Gallagher links.
 

I don't think anyone was fooled by McGuinness but Gallagher was so so poor at dealing with the issue. This fundraising has been talked about for a week. Why didn't he deal with everything in his own way instead of leaving himself open to such an ambush. To initially deny the accusation, then to call him a fuel smuggler (that he still invited), to then talk about possibly getting an 'envelope', to then at no stage saying it was inappropriate for businessmen to be paying €5k to meet the Taoiseach which is why this is such a problem was car crash tv.
 

That is SG's biggest weakness, he seems unable to think on the spot or to do what all politicians do when asked a question they don't like, give a vague answer to something completely unrelated. He wasn't impressive on this occassion. Mind you, Shinners connected to fuel smuglers, I'd never have guessed
 
It was an amazing moment in the debate alright. SG initially denied he took money until Pat Kenny put it to later in the show that SF were on twitter saying they were going to produce the person today. He then tried to damage the guys credibility by saying he was a convicted criminal and fuel smuggler. IMO, this made it worse as he more or less admitted that he took 5K from a convicted criminal. Was the money the proceed of criminal activity?

His whole defence of 'no recollection' and 'not konwing if there was a cheque' is up there with Bertie winning his money on the horses.

SF may have handed the presidency to Michael D.
 
This post will be deleted if not edited immediately, this has been one dirty campaign.
The polling might actually be interesting on Friday as it's impossible to predict how last night's debate will play out. I thought Norris gave his strongest performance so far and I wonder if there are people not admitting to voting for SF in the polls but may do so on the day itself?
 
The campaign was pretty dirty.

Collecting money for a polical party is not wrong.

How are partys to be funded? By personal taxation?

At least Gallagher has not spend money on putting up posters.

Find it hard with the tought of McGuiness throwing stones.

The McCabe Family deserve specific answers from this guy.
 
I'm very surprised that there has been very little talk of Micheal D's record on International affairs. Considering that the President will be regarded Internationally as the most important person in Ireland and will have to meet a lot of foreign leaders, how can this be overlooked in the campaign.

He has a track record of supporting unelected despots/terrorists instead of democracy e.g Saddam Hussein/Iraq, the Palestinian stuff he dabbles in. Do we really want someone like this being the international face of our country? How do people think this will go down among our most important economic partners i.e. UK & USA? If you are CEO of an International corporation thinking of moving to Ireland or considering moving out - what message does this country send by electing someone who is perceived as a left wing, anti-western society, anti-democracy, anti-multinational President?
 
Are you all tuned in to Pat Kenny?
Gallagher very rattled,very angry,very defensive.
 
thedaras said:
Are you all tuned in to Pat Kenny?
Gallagher very rattled,very angry,very defensive.
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He is being absolutely torn apart on the show.

His naiveté is staggering & essentially Pat Kenny has handed him a shovel & Mr. Gallagher is digging himself an ever deeper hole.
 
Gay Mitchell insulting the publics questions was quality, he is on a different planet thinking he can win anything. All he is doing is damaging his party.
 
Sunny said:
I agree with concerns about Michael D but using a nobody who describes themselves as Irish. Atheist. Liberal-right. Anti-jihad. Pro-American. Pro-Israel as a source probably isn't the greatest idea.
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I agree that the pictures and links to other articles are the real sources rather than this guys badly written commentary.
 
Did anyone else think the other candidates' supporters in the audience were a disgrace, booing and jeering as if they were at a pantomime?
 

Fianna Fáil supporter defending Gallagher - what a shock!

Do you think it's a good idea to collect money from (in Gallagher's own words) a convicted fuel smuggler?
 
Shawady said:
SG initially denied he took money until Pat Kenny put it to later in the show that SF were on twitter saying they were going to produce the person today.
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I think that says a whole lot more about Sinn Fein than Sean Gallagher.


Could someone clarify for me, was Sean Gallagher not a successful businessman as on this thread it's coming out like he failed? I thought he has many businesses that succeeded and he became wealthy from this?
 
I think the polls are wrong in this campaign. There is a very strong tendency in this country for people to vote along party lines. While loyal party members/supporters of the various parties may not like their candidate, when it comes to polling day, they'll put their no. 1 beside this candidate.

It's safe to say that FG and Labour have core votes in at least the 15-20% range, as does FF (which will go to Gallagher in this campaign). Even with a poor campaign, it is difficult to accept that Mitchell is only at 6% - this would mean that even FG activists will not vote for him, which simply will not happen. SF has a core of c.10%.

So, we can expect that all of the 4 candidates who have recently been or are currently members of political parties will easily get through the first couple of rounds of eliminations. With such a big field, I expect that all 3 Independents will be eliminated before any of this 4. However, none of the 4 will have anything close to a quota, so it will all come down to transfers.
 
To expand more and maybe make some predictions. I think the independent transfers will scatter around the other candidates. I think after the initial rounds, we could be left with Michael D in the lead, trailed by Mitchell and Gallagher (with c.20% each) and McGuinness in 4th, though not by much. I have a feeling that McGuinnesses transfers will not be enough to get Michael D elected (I think Michael D will not poll as well as the polls suggest - similar to what happened in the general election that Labour thought they could win). The key to the election will be who of Mitchell and Gallagher gets eliminated before the final count and where their votes go.
 
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