General Election TV debates

Muahahaha wrote: »

Mary Lou being at the debate tomorrow makes for an interesting proposition. Theres a real sense in this election that large numbers of voters are just sick of FF & FG and are willing to give SF a chance. Would imagine that Michael Martin and Leo are going to attack her throughout the night. Theres an inherent danger there that they could come off from it being seen to gang up on her which could backfire. Also the IRA is bound to come up but theres a sense that many voters are sick of Northern Ireland point scoring and want to know about the future direction of the Republic rather than hearing parties bickering about the past.

You'd also have to remember back to the debate in the UK a few years back where the Tories and Labour allowed the Lib Dems to debate for the first time. Nick Clegg was placed standing in between David Cameron and Gordon Brown and he spent much of the debate looking straight down the tv cameras talking direct to the public. Afterwards everyone agreed Clegg had won the debate and the Lib Dems got a huge bounce. FF and FG wont want the same scenarion to be happening with Mary Lou and SF.