How on earth do you misjudge something quite that badly? There are some merits to what he is saying politically, after all, there are a fair few left voting blokes who would agree wholeheartedly with what he was saying. But why dig yourself in that far? A little lighthearted teasing might have got him just as many points without forcing his colleagues to set themselves in opposition to him.
Interestingly, people keep implying that Clarke decides whether or not he gets back into Cabinet. She doesn't. In the Labour party, caucus votes to decide who will get into Cabinet, and the leader assigns portfolios. Its National who gives cartblanche to their leader (which was part of the problem with Muldoon).
Which reminds me of one of the things which should be part of our constitution, the Prime Minister should never also be Minister of Finance (or Treasurer) nor one of the Justice Ministers (Police, Justice, Corrections, etc.). It centralises too much power in the hands of one person.
Posted by carla at April 4, 2005 11:17 PM