Posted by Blogger Name. Category:
Authenticity
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Bill Ralston
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Brian Edwards
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David Cunliffe
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David Shearer
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Fairfax-Ipsos poll
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John Key
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Preferred PM
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Tracy Watkins
The Fairfax-Ipsos poll came out last week, and it's fair to say that it wasn't good news for David Cunliffe and the Labour Party he leads.
One aspect of the poll we didn't touch on when we blogged about it on Wednesday was the Preferred Prime Minister rankings; here they are:
David Cunliffe's PPM rankings are poor; they're in David Shearer territory, or worse. And whilst Labour's polling was at just under 30%, Mr Cunliffe's PPM ranking isn't even half that, which means that more Labour voters DON'T rate David Cunliffe as their choice of PM than do. That's extraordinary. So Tracy Watkins has been drilling down through the numbers:
Will the real David Cunliffe please stand up?
That's the message from experts who claim the Labour leader is failing to connect with the voting public because he's not being true to himself.
It's a sentiment reflected strongly in the latest Stuff.co.nz/Ipsos political poll in which people were asked to play a word association game with Cunliffe and Prime Minister John Key.
Asked to sum up the leaders in one word, people opted for "good" when describing Key, but words included confidence, arrogance, charismatic, leader and a suite of words lumped together as "profanity".
For Cunliffe, words like untrustworthy, arrogant and shifty were more likely to be used along with trying, promising and inexperienced.
However, the poll showed visibility is be an issue for Cunliffe, with 20 per cent saying they thought "nothing" when Cunliffe's name came up; compared with 3 per cent for Key.
While Key got 43 per cent positive comments, 30 per cent negative and 27 per cent neutral or nothing, Cunliffe got about 6 per cent positive, 25 per cent negative and a whopping 69 per cent neutral or nothing. The results reinforce the impression that Cunliffe is still struggling to connect with voters.
We find it interesting that people see David Cunliffe as "inexperienced". He has, of course, been in Parliament longer than John Key, and served as a senior Minister in the Clark administration. He had enough experience to undermine Mr Shearer's leadership.
So Tracy Watkins turns to John Key's former media trainer for some perspective, and to a media professional who has actually worked with Mr Cunliffe:
Former TVNZ political commentator turned media trainer Bill Ralston said Cunliffe came across like he "doesn't know himself".
"He always appears to be acting. You know, ‘I'm going to be angry now, I'm going to be funny now, I'm going to be serious'. I don't know what or who the real David Cunliffe is but we haven't seen him yet. It's that inauthenticity that's the issue. He just is not pitching himself as a normal person."
Ralston, who helped train Key, said the Prime Minister and New Zealand First's Winston Peters were leaders who had "clearly identified characteristics and personalities - you can almost guess what they are going to say or do next whereas Cunliffe, there's something that just doesn't ring true".
Cunliffe, who at times proved he had the ability to connect, was a thoughtful man who was likely to be over-analysing problems, he said. "He shouldn't try to be anything else other than himself."
Media trainer Brian Edwards, who has worked with Cunliffe, said the Labour leader was coming across poorly "which is curious because in the past he's come across very well indeed. He doesn't look relaxed, he doesn't look spontaneous, he looks like he is reciting extended sound bites that he has been given by advisers."
This was likely down to poor ratings and a failure to gain traction with the public which affected an MP's confidence and tended to make people over-correct. It seemed this had forced Cunliffe to over-prepare and use scripted responses at a time when it was better to wing it. "You can have this problem of too many voices. You're given all this advice and you end up with scrambled brains."
Both Ralston and Edwards are right. With John Key, what you see is what you get, and you know what that's going to be. Key is as comfortable as a Prime Minister as he is as a husband or a father, and draws people in. Even those who oppose him acknowledge his ability to comment with New Zealanders from the board room to the workplace.
David Cunliffe on the other hand is an enigma. The David Cunliffe who delivered the Budget speech on Thursday was a far cry from the David Cunliffe at home with John Campbell on Monday night. Cunliffe confuses people with his different messages to different audiences.
Is authenticity a skilled that can be acquired? We don't know, but even if it is, we doubt that David Cunliffe can acquire it before the election campaign begins in earnest. We close as Tracy Watkins began; will the real David Cunliffe please stand up?
