Cowen on Late Late

irish_bob · 05-09-2009 9:18pm

thebman wrote: »

The interview is on the RTE player if anyone wants to watch it.

I thought he asked a lot of hard questions to be fair. It was like he pulled a list of them from other media sources and people though rather than actually having any questions of his own. In particular, the drinking question came across as something Ryan read in a tabloid rag somewhere.

Of course Cowen would say the advisors were advising him. He is a politician, he is just the face for the department of finance, he doesn't actually make all the decisions. Even with the few decisions he did have to make in that position, Bertie was pullin the strings at the time.

As for the expenses, I think he genuinely wants to put a stop to that nonsense. He's a fairly modest man himself even when he's earning a lot, he doesn't exactly live it up on a lavish lifestyle so I don't think he'd have a problem putting caps on the stupid expenses himself and just saying can't not do it boys, look at the media pressure.

I don't get all the hate for the man. I think its mostly Dubs hating him because he isn't one TBH.

Anyway despite what he says, the government has no popularity now and has to fall soon so he may like being Taoiseach but he won't get to enjoy it for much longer I think.

im not a dub and i cant stand BIFFO , hes a spineless excuse for a leader , he has achieved nothing memorable in any portfolio he has held throughout his career and in finance , he was nothing but a lap dog to aherne , on ahernes orders , he threw money at the public sector left right and centre , he has been a disaster as taoiseach , through his inaction and dithering , he has allowed the situation to deteriorate over the past twelve months and all he has to say for himself is , its international factors , only a fianna fail hack could possible claim he was unliked for not being a dub , the man is a grumpy oul bollocks and thats all he is

nacho libre · 05-09-2009 10:19pm

dlofnep wrote: »

The interview was ok - but I felt Tubridy was shooting out questions way too quickly, it was a poor interview technique. He should let someone digest a question and answer it thoroughly before cutting them off in mid-sentence. You wouldn't see that sort of amatuer behaviour on pirate radio.

sometimes you have to interrupt because the politician will answer the question they want to answer rather than answering the question that was put to them. if you repeatedly let them away with this then momentum is lost and the opportunity sometimes is lost to revisit the issue. then you'll have people complaining that the interviewer let him waffle on without challenging him on his evasiveness. Ahern was regularly allowed to get away with when he was interviewed on prime time. it's just a pity he wasn't in the firing line last night.

jpfahy · 05-09-2009 10:46pm

the groutch wrote: »

this interview is was only preparation imo for when he comes face-to-face with Vincent Browne

That'll be the day

gerry28 · 05-09-2009 10:53pm

The fact that Cowen is even tolerated as our taoiseach is a graphic illustration of how far our country has fallen.

I don't think our standards have fallen that much at all. Haughey and Ahern were cowboys in their own way.

We have little history of expecting high standards in office. Hopefully after this resession/scare we will demand more.

Also, I found it kind of embarrassing that the leader of our country can be wheeled out as cannon fodder for a new host of an entertainment show.

kumate_champ07 · 06-09-2009 12:24am

just a quick job, not as good as I'd have liked

lostexpectation · 06-09-2009 2:46am

if cowen wanted more time to answer questions he should have given more time to the late late then 20minutes,

tubridy made the mistake of apologising for asking certain questions, he should listen to cowen never admit mistakes

r3nu4l · 06-09-2009 10:26am

dlofnep wrote: »

The interview was ok - but I felt Tubridy was shooting out questions way too quickly, it was a poor interview technique. He should let someone digest a question and answer it thoroughly before cutting them off in mid-sentence. You wouldn't see that sort of amatuer behaviour on pirate radio.

Well I know that because of your politics you'd probably not listen to BBC4 but if you did you would have realised that Tubridy was actually doing a poor 'John Humpheries'. Perhaps you should listen to BBC4, then you'd learn a bit about 'real journalism'. Admittedly tubridy tried this tactic but importantly, imo, he didn't press hard enough in the right places some of the time.

nacho libre wrote: »

sometimes you have to interrupt because the politician will answer the question they want to answer rather than answering the question that was put to them. if you repeatedly let them away with this then momentum is lost and the opportunity sometimes is lost to revisit the issue. then you'll have people complaining that the interviewer let him waffle on without challenging him on his evasiveness. Ahern was regularly allowed to get away with when he was interviewed on prime time. it's just a pity he wasn't in the firing line last night.

Exactly! Mealy-mouthed politicians always seem to dance around the question by using weasel-words and the longer an interviewer allows this to go on, the less interview time is left. Sometimes you just have to tell them that you're not taking their crap anymore and really push them into a corner to get ANY sort of answer. Even then, the politicians are masters of evasion...

thebman wrote: »

I don't get all the hate for the man. I think its mostly Dubs hating him because he isn't one TBH.

Absolute rubbish to be honest.

FlutterinBantam wrote: »

That is definitely a factor.

More rubbish. It's got nothing to do with him being a culchie, it's just the typical Irish attitude. Bertie wasn't loved because he was a dub, Bertie was loved (by morons) because times were 'good' and the money was being given out left, right and centre to anyone and everyone. Had BIFFO been Taoiseach at that point, he too would have been loved. If Bertie was running the show now you'd see a lot of hate for the man.

As always, people love politicians and let them away with anything if they feel that they too are getting a slice of the pie. Now Irish people feel that they are being shafted once again (despite them allowing this to happen) and so the hate kicks in. It's got nothing to do with 'Dubs' vs 'Culchie' and if you think that's what it's about then you probably shouldn't be posting in the politics forum, there's plenty of culchie vs Dubs threads in AH!

Charlie_Boswell · 06-09-2009 10:35am

I watched the interview on Friday night, In fairness to Ryan he asked some tough questions, but here's my question, Are we bashing Brian Cowen for his poor leadership skills or his poor people / media skills? Because there's a big difference.

There will always be mistakes made in politics, detractors will always find a negative spin in every decision made but I think that we (the Irish people) need to take a step back and look at the wider picture. We can choose to Vote No to Lisbon, call for a General Election in vote in FG, Labour or what ever alternative comes to pass, But are we doing this because the Media are influencing us in that direction?

If you look at Castell's Network society - Politics in Media space is one of the main constituents of the Network society we live in today. You only have to look at how Obama successfully made use of Internet media space in his campaign.

If anything this is where I think Cowen and FF are failing, They need to get Media savvy, And I'm not talking about traditional forms of media but here, Online.

If we are going to make a change let it be because we have poor leadership, not because our leaders are poor communicators.

Charlie

freewheeler · 06-09-2009 12:29pm

Charlie_Boswell wrote: »

I watched the interview on Friday night, In fairness to Ryan he asked some tough questions, but here's my question, Are we bashing Brian Cowen for his poor leadership skills or his poor people / media skills? Because there's a big difference.

There will always be mistakes made in politics, detractors will always find a negative spin in every decision made but I think that we (the Irish people) need to take a step back and look at the wider picture. We can choose to Vote No to Lisbon, call for a General Election in vote in FG, Labour or what ever alternative comes to pass, But are we doing this because the Media are influencing us in that direction?

If you look at Castell's Network society - Politics in Media space is one of the main constituents of the Network society we live in today. You only have to look at how Obama successfully made use of Internet media space in his campaign.

If anything this is where I think Cowen and FF are failing, They need to get Media savvy, And I'm not talking about traditional forms of media but here, Online.

If we are going to make a change let it be because we have poor leadership, not because our leaders are poor communicators.

Charlie

With all due respect Charlie,i dont think this governments main deficiency is that they are poor communicators...they are simply a poor government! The facts speak for themselves, this country is suffering one of the worst recessions in the developed world mainly because of decisions taken(or not taken) by this lot! Whats absolutely staggering to me is the absolute arrogance of them..they blame EVERYONE but themselves for the problems we are now experiencing..classic example? step forward Mr.Bertie Ahern a man who should have crawled back under whatever rock he came out from under..instead he fancies himself as Lord Mayor of Dublin or maybe even our next President!! You couldn't make it up!! :mad:

thebman · 06-09-2009 1:48pm

irish_bob wrote: »

im not a dub and i cant stand BIFFO , hes a spineless excuse for a leader , he has achieved nothing memorable in any portfolio he has held throughout his career and in finance , he was nothing but a lap dog to aherne , on ahernes orders , he threw money at the public sector left right and centre , he has been a disaster as taoiseach , through his inaction and dithering , he has allowed the situation to deteriorate over the past twelve months and all he has to say for himself is , its international factors , only a fianna fail hack could possible claim he was unliked for not being a dub , the man is a grumpy oul bollocks and thats all he is

lol FF hack, you know me so well

If he can't do the job, he can't do the job and I don't think he can do the job, illogical hatred is another thing.

gerry28 wrote: »

I don't think our standards have fallen that much at all. Haughey and Ahern were cowboys in their own way.

We have little history of expecting high standards in office. Hopefully after this resession/scare we will demand more.

Also, I found it kind of embarrassing that the leader of our country can be wheeled out as cannon fodder for a new host of an entertainment show.

I agree, standards have always been poor.

r3nu4l wrote: »

More rubbish. It's got nothing to do with him being a culchie, it's just the typical Irish attitude. Bertie wasn't loved because he was a dub, Bertie was loved (by morons) because times were 'good' and the money was being given out left, right and centre to anyone and everyone. Had BIFFO been Taoiseach at that point, he too would have been loved. If Bertie was running the show now you'd see a lot of hate for the man.

Yeah but things weren't in the crapper when Cowen took over and everyone was already at him. So people still had what they wanted and Cowen was Minister for Finance when they got it yet they immediately hated him.

Obviously he doesn't exactly look good which could be a factor but neither do any of them.

As always, people love politicians and let them away with anything if they feel that they too are getting a slice of the pie. Now Irish people feel that they are being shafted once again (despite them allowing this to happen) and so the hate kicks in. It's got nothing to do with 'Dubs' vs 'Culchie' and if you think that's what it's about then you probably shouldn't be posting in the politics forum, there's plenty of culchie vs Dubs threads in AH!

I'm just saying its a factor certainly when he initially took office. Immediately referred to as Biffo and the media trying to make a mockery of him. Once the financial crisis kicked in and everything was most certainly screwed then you can see why people are against him now.

Anyway I don't think this government should be in power, I just think there is a lot of hatred for the guy rather than just thinking he's doing a crap job which is what people should be discussing.

As for AH remarks, there are plenty of nonsense threads in there spewing hatred about the guy not discussing politics at all :-/

FeistyOneYouAre · 06-09-2009 1:54pm

freewheeler wrote: »

With all due respect Charlie,i dont think this governments main deficiency is that they are poor communicators...they are simply a poor government! The facts speak for themselves, this country is suffering one of the worst recessions in the developed world mainly because of decisions taken(or not taken) by this lot! Whats absolutely staggering to me is the absolute arrogance of them..they blame EVERYONE but themselves for the problems we are now experiencing..classic example? step forward Mr.Bertie Ahern a man who should have crawled back under whatever rock he came out from under..instead he fancies himself as Lord Mayor of Dublin or maybe even our next President!! You couldn't make it up!! :mad:

The fact actually is that the current government were voted in by the people of Ireland. And before that it was Fianna Fail and before that it was Fianna Fail so its not as if no one knew what they were about. There was no threads on this 6 years ago calling the government on its decisions.

darc · 06-09-2009 2:05pm

juuge wrote: »

Must be very comforting for the 400,000 out of work!

That's a totally incorrect figure.

There are 400,000 on the live register, this includes all people receiving employment assistance which includes part time workers, seasonal worked, short time workers, those with disbilities and theose unable to wrok for one reason or other.

The true unemployment figure is the quarterly CSO employment survey which is due out next week I believe. This figure will be in the region of 240,000 not a good figure by any standards, but a more realistic figure when comparisons are being made with other countires.

As regards coomets wanting Cowen out, what in real terms are the alternatives at the moment?

Labour & Eamonn Gilmore are probably the only party giving actual ideas on the economy, but would need a partner to form a government.

Can you actually see Enda Kenny & his chums operating an economy?

If there was to be a change in governement, I'd like to see FF/Lab until such time FG show some real direction to their policies and stop their neverending bitching on anything & everything to do with this country.

thebman · 06-09-2009 2:29pm

darc wrote: »

Can you actually see Enda Kenny & his chums operating an economy?

Yes.

irish_bob · 06-09-2009 2:39pm

the groutch wrote: »

this interview is was only preparation imo for when he comes face-to-face with Vincent Browne

only lefties rate VB as an anylist or an interviewer , most of the time he sounds like a nagging house wife when talking to people

irish_bob · 06-09-2009 2:45pm

darc wrote: »

That's a totally incorrect figure.

There are 400,000 on the live register, this includes all people receiving employment assistance which includes part time workers, seasonal worked, short time workers, those with disbilities and theose unable to wrok for one reason or other.

The true unemployment figure is the quarterly CSO employment survey which is due out next week I believe. This figure will be in the region of 240,000 not a good figure by any standards, but a more realistic figure when comparisons are being made with other countires.

As regards coomets wanting Cowen out, what in real terms are the alternatives at the moment?

Labour & Eamonn Gilmore are probably the only party giving actual ideas on the economy, but would need a partner to form a government.

Can you actually see Enda Kenny & his chums operating an economy?

If there was to be a change in governement, I'd like to see FF/Lab until such time FG show some real direction to their policies and stop their neverending bitching on anything & everything to do with this country.

spoken like a true fianna fail,r , dismiss fine gael as having put forward no policy suggestions ( despite them being the only ones who have ) and praise labour for having done so ( courting for next goverment as no other party has numbers ) despite the fact that labour have not proposed a single proposal other than populist grandstanding about taxing the super rich

ninty9er · 06-09-2009 3:35pm

jimmmy wrote: »

( the highest paid politician in the world )

Think again

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/04/01/the-10-highest-paid-polit_n_182003.html

All of them members of the Government of Singapore!

Wheely · 06-09-2009 3:44pm

darc wrote: »

Can you actually see Enda Kenny & his chums operating an economy?

If there was to be a change in governement, I'd like to see FF/Lab until such time FG show some real direction to their policies and stop their neverending bitching on anything & everything to do with this country.

Are you blind? How are the FF front bench more capable than the FG front bench at the moment?
Seriously-FF have shown that they are incapable of running an economy!!!

On topic-I thought Ryan Tubridy did very well on Friday night, Just watched it there and though I never had rime for him before, I have a new-found respect for him.

ninty9er · 06-09-2009 3:51pm

jimmmy wrote: »

If he was an honest person without an ego, would he really still be paying himself more than Obama or the p.m. of the UK, France or germany etc.( all much larger, industrialised countries) .... especially considering the mess he has made of a generation of peoples lives ?

That's rubbish. People should examine the figures properly, and look at perks like the Elysse Palace, the White House, Air Force One etc. He's still overpaid, but not as overpaid as the likes of the massively overrated Obama or massively over egoed Sarkozy. Stewards House is a 4 bed bungalow, the others mentioned have mansions and private jets FFS.

mixednuts wrote: »

""The country is in the s.h.its , we all have tough decisions , I am the leader i will do my job , let the Circus go on around me , i am leading ..go f.u.ck off and judge me when the crap has cleared ! "

For me I think his popularity went up a few points , lets not forget the number that tuned into the Late Late were through the roof .

I think that's hit the nail on the head. It does not matter what you, I, or anyone else thinks of Cowen, he still has a job to do and as he said himself, that job remains the same regardless of ratings.

I canvassed with him in Limerick City Centre yesterday and people were actually queueing up to say how well he did on the Late Late, that's not propaganda or bull****, it is clean straight FACT. I was there, so before anyone refutes it, you can't unless you were in the Milk Market in Limerick. There were 2 frosty customers, but in fairness I expected a WHOLE lot more.

The way he explained NAMA (albeit in a much dumbed down manner) seemed to allay a lot of people's fears. However some people still fail to even WANT to see what NAMA is about, they just oppose it because it's being proposed by FF.

Villain · 06-09-2009 4:10pm

Jody Corcocan's article in the Indo made me sick, jesus you'd swear himself and Biffo were brothers!

JonathanAnon · 06-09-2009 4:21pm

Villain wrote: »

Jody Corcocan's article in the Indo made me sick, jesus you'd swear himself and Biffo were brothers!

To be fair to him, he summed up Tubridy correctly. The weasel quoted the article that Jody had written (where he asked that question about drinking too much) as justification for asking the same question himself, without actually having the balls to ask it straight out himself.

http://www.independent.ie/national-news/if-tubridy-wanted-to-get-personal-he-should-have-asked-questions-like-a-man-1879538.html

Villain · 06-09-2009 4:24pm

JonathanAnon wrote: »

To be fair to him, he summed up Tubridy correctly. The weasel quoted the article that Jody had written (where he asked that question about drinking too much) as justification for asking the same question himself, without actually having the balls to ask it straight out himself.

http://www.independent.ie/national-news/if-tubridy-wanted-to-get-personal-he-should-have-asked-questions-like-a-man-1879538.html

Yea but he could have made that point without the Mugging crap and the rest of the crap he wrote, I'd hate to read Jody if Biffo had a real hard interview. Think its time Ruddock or someone else got the front story

JonathanAnon · 06-09-2009 4:43pm

Villain wrote: »

Yea but he could have made that point without the Mugging crap and the rest of the crap he wrote, I'd hate to read Jody if Biffo had a real hard interview. Think its time Ruddock or someone else got the front story

I agree about the mugging reference. Was listening to the radio today (with Marian Finucane), and they said that Cowan never actually used that word "mugging" at all.

http://www.independent.ie/national-news/taoiseach-upset-at-late-late-lsquomuggingrsquo-1879660.html

However, the use of the inverted commas around the word mugging, implies that it is a quote from An Taoiseach himself and this is misleading to the reader.

I do agree with Corcoran that Tubridy was trying to come across as really asking the hard questions (and thus concealing his own FF bent), but he had to give a pretext to every hard question to justify him asking, and backed down immediately when he got an answer.... i.e. "I'm sorry for asking that" etc etc. He's is truly gutless.

r3nu4l · 06-09-2009 5:25pm

thebman wrote: »

Yeah but things weren't in the crapper when Cowen took over and everyone was already at him. So people still had what they wanted and Cowen was Minister for Finance when they got it yet they immediately hated him.

On the contrary, people were beginning to realise that there were a lot of unanswered questions regarding Bertie/FF and developers. Cowen, as right-hand-man was therefore always going to be a target, he just wasn't helped by the fact that the economy took a nose-dive soon after he got into power.

I'm just saying its a factor certainly when he initially took office. Immediately referred to as Biffo and the media trying to make a mockery of him.

Yeah, Gordon Brown got the same treatment by the media. It seems as though the meeja prefer their leaders to be charismatic rather than competent :rolleyes:

Anyway I don't think this government should be in power, I just think there is a lot of hatred for the guy rather than just thinking he's doing a crap job which is what people should be discussing.

Yeah but I really don't think that's because he's not a Dub, honestly, if Cowen was still cosying up to developers and rich D4 businessmen, helping them to make money, I think you'd find that he was a liked a lot more.

As for AH remarks, there are plenty of nonsense threads in there spewing hatred about the guy not discussing politics at all :-/

That was kinda my point

deadhead13 · 06-09-2009 6:00pm

ninty9er wrote: »

That's rubbish. People should examine the figures properly, and look at perks like the Elysse Palace, the White House, Air Force One etc. He's still overpaid, but not as overpaid as the likes of the massively overrated Obama or massively over egoed Sarkozy. Stewards House is a 4 bed bungalow, the others mentioned have mansions and private jets FFS.

When you factor in the difference in population of these countries, there is only one conclusion, Brian Cowen is grossly overpaid.

bSlick · 06-09-2009 6:02pm

ninty9er wrote: »

That's rubbish. People should examine the figures properly, and look at perks like the Elysse Palace, the White House, Air Force One etc. He's still overpaid, but not as overpaid as the likes of the massively overrated Obama or massively over egoed Sarkozy. Stewards House is a 4 bed bungalow, the others mentioned have mansions and private jets FFS.

I can't believe you are throwing out the Bertie 'I won it on the horses' Ahern excuse....Have mansions and private jets? Firstly you do realise that Obama and Sarkosy don't actually own the White House or Elysse Palace? And Cowen has Farmleigh and the government jet for his own use whenever he wants it, it's not like their are no perks for an Irish politician, just ask John O' Donoghue. It is far from rubbish. Cowen's pay is ludicrous.

The way he explained NAMA (albeit in a much dumbed down manner) seemed to allay a lot of people's fears. However some people still fail to even WANT to see what NAMA is about, they just oppose it because it's being proposed by FF.

Well why would people want to let this government risk tens of billions of our money when FF has constantly and consistently shown they are completely incompetent and corrupt? Every second back bencher now is coming out and moaning about the party and mistakes that have been made. Why would we want to let the same people who got us into this mess try and dig us out? If your stockbroker cost you €100,000 would you like to give him a chance to be the one to make it back or would you think it could be a good idea to give someone else a chance rather than risk losing even more?

lostexpectation · 06-09-2009 6:06pm

ah the fanboys have arrived, who apparently think he did nothing wrong? huh other deliberatly creating an all encompassing fragile property bubble like no other in the world.

people might show him respect if he showed it to the 85% of people of ireland who disagree with him, instead he treats them with contempt.

FlutterinBantam · 06-09-2009 6:19pm

r3nu4l wrote: »

More rubbish. It's got nothing to do with him being a culchie, it's just the typical Irish attitude. Bertie wasn't loved because he was a dub, Bertie was loved (by morons) because times were 'good' and the money was being given out left, right and centre to anyone and everyone. Had BIFFO been Taoiseach at that point, he too would have been loved. If Bertie was running the show now you'd see a lot of hate for the man.

As always, people love politicians and let them away with anything if they feel that they too are getting a slice of the pie. Now Irish people feel that they are being shafted once again (despite them allowing this to happen) and so the hate kicks in. It's got nothing to do with 'Dubs' vs 'Culchie' and if you think that's what it's about then you probably shouldn't be posting in the politics forum, there's plenty of culchie vs Dubs threads in AH!

What do you mean "rubbish" and please don't get so personal with me.

Of course it's not a Dubs vs Culchie situation,and I never said it was.

What I said was that the fact he is not from Dublin is a factor ,and I stand by that assertion

Please don't come on here and suggest to me what fora I should contribute to,that kind of smartarsery doesn't go down too well here.

I won't tolerate that kind of vapid guff.

sceptre · 06-09-2009 6:28pm

A little calm would go a long way guys.

/mod

Cuchulain · 06-09-2009 8:00pm

Ok so you all think that Cowen is a bumbling buffoon that is incapable of being a good leader. Does this automatically make Kenny a better leader?
I know that Cowen has his flaws but out of all the party leaders (other than Gilmore) he would make the best taoiseach.

I gaurantee that this country would be in a worse state if FG/Enda "The Plank" Kenny was in power.

Villain · 06-09-2009 8:09pm

Cuchulain wrote: »

Ok so you all think that Cowen is a bumbling buffoon that is incapable of being a good leader. Does this automatically make Kenny a better leader?
I know that Cowen has his flaws but out of all the party leaders (other than Gilmore) he would make the best taoiseach.

I gaurantee that this country would be in a worse state if FG/Enda "The Plank" Kenny was in power.

"I'm not as bad as the other fella so you might as well leave me in charge."

What a great argument

Cowen on Late Late

Comments