Presidential Election 2025

Yes indeed - so prove your nonsense claim CC is “the most presidential person in the Dail” - given this is politics forum that’s not an unreasonable request - there is no onus on anyone to disprove it - it’s your statement .

OK, I take your point. Last few days now, boasts will be made, lies, maybe, hopes certainly. But fair comment.

But there is an agreement and FF/FG are in govt! Grubby or not. There was a chance of a great left alliance, but it didn't even come close to being a govt, not even close! The future might be different, who knows, but this presidential race is an agreement by the left of only one thing, a candidate. Nothing in comparison to a pfg. Connolly wouldn't be in agreement with all the party's that support her even.

There was an interesting comment from an Indo journalist on the Indo's politics podcast discussing the election campaign that the parties who backed Connolly could end up becoming more like a potential government in waiting due to cooperating and finding things in common. A combined Left emerging from this election is a very dangerous thing for FFG. The 35% historic low may be due in part to the presidential election. Whether FFG recovers is a question for a different thread.

Indeed- and considering some people are drawing inferences from this election to future elections and that the left will “rise up”- it’s more likely Labour will be in government with FF/FG having stolen SF’s thunder from this presidential election

“Do you think that Humphreys can still win?”

Simple math will say no to that question - but I never said this is a rejection of the FFFG government - that’s your words not mine .

I'll clarify my position on Humphreys by saying she has demonstrated an inability to compete in a national election. She was never going to be as competitive as McGuinness. I think though, that people anticipated Humphreys as being well able to stand up to, and compete with other candidates. And this has not materialized. But we can see why certain people would have expected more, she has a decent political CV. Time in government as a minister, and a political career going back to the early noughties. She should be performaing far better than she is.

• Her campaign in general has been poor. I would imagine she has a team of experienced advisors, but they can only do so much. Her campaign media appearences have been parodied, as opposed to achieving traction with the electorate.
• In the early debates she was low key, which is when I began referring to her as a non-entity. In the first 2 debates she was a third tier talking point, behind how well Connolly communicates, and how horrendous Gavin performed.
• In head to heads with Connolly, she has slipped up numerous times, and failed to make a serious impact on Connolly. The attack lines are obvious, in terms of CC's history of opposing the EU, her comments on Germany, the US - plenty of talking points for Humphreys to get stuck into. But her criticisms are unpolished, and she just lacks the sharpness needed to knock Connolly back, and make her own voice heard. Obvious situations like CC's opinions on 'European Militarization, and Military Industrial Complex' - Humphreys comes off as quite amateurish when she attacks these positions, and sounds more like a complaining constituent, as opposed to a Presidential Candidate
• She has suffered a few unforced errors. I dont know what the hell she was thinking bringing up the Murphy/Burton fiasco, it was embarassing. I suspect she ad-libbed that one, as I doubt anyone politically skilled would have encouraged bringing this up. If anything it reminds the public of the Austerity years, when HH was in Government and damaging societal supports at a time of real hardship.

I just dont think Humphreys is good enough as a candidate. She may well make a good President, and iv been vocal in my opinion, that she would be better than Connolly for the job. Iv been clear on why i think this, and i stand by my many criticisms of CC. I dont think either of these candidates are very good to be honest. But of the two we have, Connolly is deservedly first place, she communicates her message, and engages with the public. Most of the discussion around the election centers on Connolly, with Humphreys being a distant second.

Thats my opinion anyway

What was even more surprising was that FG hadn't a rep on the panel. Lawlor was out of her depth with David Cullinane. FG to smear a barrister when its housing policies have resulted in 16,000 people homeless is absolutely ridiculous.

She was mentioned on TWIP bt I didn't hear her. If they have to roll out McEntee, things must be much worse for Humphreys than people realise.

Im possibly going to concede here, that if this is in relation to CC and repossessions during the financial crash -Yes, that is a smear.

Where we will disagree no doubt, is that i think many talking points have been wrongly described as smears. Eirigi, Rapist/Aras, the Syria Trip, and CC's positioning on the EU - all of these are fair game topics in my opinion.

But if McEntee is trying to bring up CC's role as a barrister, and possible housing repossessions at this point - YES, 100% that is smear - its unwelcome, unwarranted, and will likely be counter-productive - without hessitation i admit that

Mary Regan on RTE making the point that whole swathes of the population have been left unrepresented in this election : the centre left for example and 'the right'. That is totally on FFG : they almost gleefully blocked off the Oireachtas and Councils path with their whip system. It has blown up in their faces though, with support in particular for FF and Martin well down.

It's the fact that a government minister is brought on to ostensibly discuss teachers and then is invited to unload on CC, 5 days out from an election.

One of the opposition spokespeople on education could have been invited in on the teacher issue and had a chance to reply to McEntee's attack but they weren't and that is the issue here and it's part of the same media campaign that you've consistently attempted to playdown and dismiss.