Missed Opportunity For Fine Gael in Presidental Election.

Xenophile

How Fine Gael got it wrong.

Inviting someone outside the party to try for a nomination.

Fine Gael should have ran two candidates and one of these should have been Mairead McGuinness, this would have shown thinking outside the box and instead of just paying lip service to women in politics the country’s largest political party would have given the electorate a real choice after all Mairead McGuinness had shown an early and sincere wish to be our next President and in my view she would have been an excellent choice.

Sunnyisland

If Gay mitchell had concerned himself more about how to get the people to vote for him and why instead of telling us the public why we shouldn't vote for MMG he would have done a better job of being elected,Also he came across as a very cross & unhappy man with a very condescending attitude.Imo.

Wallflower

realies wrote: »

If Gay mitchell had concerned himself more about how to get the people to vote for him and why instead of telling us the public why we shouldn't vote for MMG he would have done a better job of being elected,Also he came across as a very cross & unhappy man with a very condescending attitude.Imo.

Absolutely spot on, summarised perfectly.

fishy fishy

mitchell is an embarrassment. end of :pac:

lugha

realies wrote: »

If Gay mitchell had concerned himself more about how to get the people to vote for him and why instead of telling us the public why we shouldn't vote for MMG he would have done a better job of being elected,Also he came across as a very cross & unhappy man with a very condescending attitude.Imo.

Certainly he has a charisma deficit; such things should not matter but of course they do.

But I doubt very much if his decision to criticize MMG was done of his own bat, I suspect any FG candidate would likely have done the same thing. Just as pretty much all parties would have reminded us of the economic failings of FF has they officially ran a candidate. And I don't think this cost Mitchell very much, the kind of people who would have voted for him would largely agree with him on MMG.

[Jackass]

He was an absolutely awful, awful candidate.

Victor

Xenophile wrote: »

Fine Gael should have ran two candidates and one of these should have been Mairead McGuinness

That sounds like the time FF ran 5 candidates in a 4 seat constituency. If a party can't decide on its own candidate, how are the public meant to do it?

[Jackass]

To be fair though, I'd say that had more to do with vote absorbtion and hoping to get all 4 seats by transfer. Strategy is a major part of General Elections as we know.

Sponge Bob

Mitchell is of a breed that is credible in certain pockets of south dublin (especially when the other lot are doing badly).

He will probably score best in Dublins South South East and Dunlaoighre with 10% + and will tank to sub 10% everywhere else...excepting perhaps Cork South West and North West. he won't even bust 10% in Mayo I reckon and that with 4 FG seats nowadays.

Xenophile

Victor wrote: »

If a party can't decide on its own candidate, how are the public meant to do it?

Parties can decide on candidates and maybe on occassion that's the way to go. Of course they run the risk of losing money if one of them, or even both of them don't reach 12.5% of the vote. At least parties in the main can afford the loss.:D

headmaster

This is the electorate telling Kenny and Hogan that their day is coming. Also FG themselves letting Kenny know the wrong man was let run, so i'd guess there just might be a very keen look in the direction of another coup by those who are still waiting in the long grass. Things will not be as they should be in FG after this walloping and there's a nasty budget looming, ouch!!!!!!!!!! Someone's going to take the hit for this election fiasco, oh yes they are. Who???????

AnamGlas

The man is a plank, end of story.

Captain Graphite

Xenophile wrote: »

Fine Gael should have ran two candidates and one of these should have been Mairead McGuinness, this would have shown thinking outside the box and instead of just paying lip service to women in politics the country’s largest political party would have given the electorate a real choice after all Mairead McGuinness had shown an early and sincere wish to be our next President and in my view she would have been an excellent choice.

Surely one party running two candidates would be a bad idea as it would just split the vote of party loyalists? I know most of the transfers of one would go to the other candidate but not every voter uses their second preferences so it's an unnecessarily risky strategy, isn't it?

McGuinness definitely would have done better than Mitchell but would she have beaten Higgins? I'm not so sure. We'll never know though.

Fluorescence

Pat Cox should have run for FG, I think. Mairead McGuinness would also have been excellent.

Gay Mitchell came across as a plank with all the charisma of a toothpick. I'm sure his experience is good and his work has been wonderful, but he was an ill-suited candidate for this particular role.

Ozymandius2011

In other words the electorate found him 75% less credible than Sean Gallagher as a prospective President b ased on vote share.

LostinBlanch

headmaster wrote: »

This is the electorate telling Kenny and Hogan that their day is coming.

Well that's what they get for acting like Continuity FF. Vote for change? Me bollix.

headmaster wrote: »

Also FG themselves letting Kenny know the wrong man was let run, so i'd guess there just might be a very keen look in the direction of another coup by those who are still waiting in the long grass. Things will not be as they should be in FG after this walloping and there's a nasty budget looming, ouch!!!!!!!!!! Someone's going to take the hit for this election fiasco, oh yes they are. Who???????

M'eh who cares, deckchairs meet titanic (again).

And for those that think it might have been a lot different with Pat Cox as candidate instead of the continually tetchy and irrelevant Mitchell. Do you really think the electorate would have taken to the IMF/CEB candidate so easily?

Well done Michael D, but the sideshow is now over.

bleg

Gay Mitchell's default position seemed to be: everybody should vote for me because I'm Fine Gael, if they don't, insult them.

Ozymandius2011

I really hope FG fronts him in the inevitable referendum on the European Superstate that we are being softened up for because the "Yes" vote will drop like a stone.

dartbhoy

For me Fine Gael missed a great opportunity not running Sean Kelly for President. Seemingly he declared he had no interest in it but Fine Gael should have tried to coax him to run for the Aras. IMO he was 1 of the best GAA presidents ever and has a great demeanour about him and easy to relate to the public,he would have won the presidential race IMO.

Gay Mitchell was a disgrace and a joke of a candidate,his constant moaning at McGuinness was boring and IMO he had given up the race long ago,a joke and embarrassment to FG!

Gergiev

headmaster wrote: »

This is the electorate telling Kenny and Hogan that their day is coming. Also FG themselves letting Kenny know the wrong man was let run, so i'd guess there just might be a very keen look in the direction of another coup by those who are still waiting in the long grass. Things will not be as they should be in FG after this walloping and there's a nasty budget looming, ouch!!!!!!!!!! Someone's going to take the hit for this election fiasco, oh yes they are. Who???????

Well...Kenny can't take the hit for this as he didn't want Mitchell in the first place and had him imposed on the ticket by the party representatives.

So they can hardly criticize him now after foisting such a poor candidate on him...

Sunnyisland

Mr Mitchell declined to comment when approached at the count centre in Dublin Castle last night. Clearly devastated by his performance, Mr Mitchell slipped in quietly as Michael D Higgins was being applauded and left soon after.from the Independent.


I know nobody is happy losing, But as he is a long term successful politician why did nobody tell him he was going all about it the wrong way, You would not have to be an expert to see from the start that he was coming at the election from the wrong angle, Maybe one of his FG handlers forgot to mention it was a presidential election not a local by election.He certainly lost some future votes in his constituency as well.This performance might come back to haunt him.

Gergiev

realies wrote: »

Mr Mitchell declined to comment when approached at the count centre in Dublin Castle last night. Clearly devastated by his performance, Mr Mitchell slipped in quietly as Michael D Higgins was being applauded and left soon after.from the Independent. I know nobody is happy losing...

Shades of Alan Dukes not turning up for the declaration of Mary Robinson's victory in 1990.

At least Mitchell turned up.

But the presidency has been a thorn in the side of Fine Gael since the foundation of the office.

Sierra Oscar

It will be interesting to follow FG over the term of the Dail. No doubt the choice of candidate was disastrous but all the same I think the presidential election shows that the party has failed to "lock in" the extra votes they received at the General Election. They should have approached the presidential election with the aim of consolidating its position, instead people are now chatting nationally about how disastrous they have performed. Its a damaging result for the party.

Presidential election shows that much of the FG vote is not entirely loyal and may be "on loan" from the political parties which lost out in the last GE.

Sponge Bob

Gergiev wrote: »

Well...Kenny can't take the hit for this as he didn't want Mitchell in the first place and had him imposed on the ticket by the party representatives.

Mitchell never showed up when Higgins was declared elected at around 4pm....everyone else did bar Davis.

Mitchell was foisted on us by the same silly Dublin based cabaal that nearly split FG in half in 2010.