Mao Zedong features as preferred PM

Written By: - Date published: 12:23 pm, March 3rd, 2008 - 21 comments
Categories: dpf, polls - Tags: ,

mao better version

As Helen Clark and John Key continue to jockey for top spot as preferred PM, Mao Zedong has made his first appearance in a Herald Digipoll.

Media commentators are pointing to this as evidence that these polls are largely worthless.

National aren’t so philosophical. Insiders indicate that National are far from happy with Mao’s appearance in the poll. Mao clearly has a stronger leadership record than John Key and it could hardly be said that anybody ever thought of him as “slippery” when it came to his beliefs – on his day Mao could be pretty photogenic too.

National are pointing the finger squarely at their pet blogger David Farrar and his mates at the “Free Speech (as long as it’s ours) Coalition” for Mao’s strong showing. You may remember the coalition from such posts here on The Standard as “Farrar’s billboard fiasco” (video below) and “Billboard donors unmasked“.

The coalition (Farrar, Whaleoil and a handful of the rabid Kiwiblog right) have run a series of billboards in protest at the Electoral Finance Act’s restrictions on National’s attempt to rort democracy by buying as much electoral advertising as their back-room backers can afford.

The billboards which attack Helen Clark, Winston Peters and Peter Dunne – likening them to a variety of dictators – were widely criticised for their off-base comparisons and cryptic messages. Nine out of ten people we polled had no idea what the billboards were about.

Rumor has it that the coalition’s John Ansell-designed billboards were also a personal bid to recapture at least a little of his former Iwi/Kiwi “glory”.

Strike two, I guess.

21 comments on “Mao Zedong features as preferred PM ”

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  1. Ruth 1
    3 March 2008 at 12:54 pm

    Very good!

    Nine out of ten people we polled had no idea what the billboards were about.

    That’s true, you know. I hope the Kiwiblog Right stay this irrelevant.

  2. Robinsod 2
    3 March 2008 at 1:17 pm

    Does this mean I can vote for Mao or not?

  3. higherstandard 3
    3 March 2008 at 1:37 pm

    Which party is Mao running with or is he standing as an independent.

  4. Tane 4
    3 March 2008 at 1:59 pm

    I’ve heard rumours he’s standing for the Kiwi Party. If so the leadership struggle with Gordon Copeland should be interesting.

  5. higherstandard 5
    3 March 2008 at 2:04 pm

    Can’t wait for CM Burns to announce his candidacy

  6. Matthew Pilott 6
    3 March 2008 at 3:17 pm

    I’m assuming the drop in support for Labour is in the hope of a Maoist Party being set up to reveal to New Zealand the Shining Path towards a Socialist (totalitarian) Society?

  7. Scribe 7
    3 March 2008 at 3:22 pm

    Tane,

    I’ve heard rumours he’s standing for the Kiwi Party. If so the leadership struggle with Gordon Copeland should be interesting.

    Humour — and I use that term loosely — works better when factually accurate. Gordon’s not the leader of the Kiwi Party. Nice try, though. NCEA: Not achieved.

  8. MikeE 8
    3 March 2008 at 3:28 pm

    Is Mao the new Labour Candidate? 😛

    I didn’t know the cloning machines at the EPMU were up and running!

  9. Matthew Pilott 9
    3 March 2008 at 3:47 pm

    Scribe, if humour works better when factually accurate, then why didn’t you complain that Mao didn’t actually feature in the poll, as opposed to having a little whinge about Copeland?

    Come to think of it, if you didn’t find it funny why did you comment at all?

    Maybe you should go and see a funny movie like coneheads or something, try to lax out a bit…

  10. Inventory2 10
    3 March 2008 at 4:00 pm

    Very good satire a_y_b – now I just have to work out which of your previous posts were piss-takes, and which were for real!

  11. Tane 11
    3 March 2008 at 4:24 pm

    Scribe, good point, I’d forgotten all about that. Copeland really is a tragic figure.

  12. Steve Pierson 12
    3 March 2008 at 4:55 pm

    we don’t let a_y_b do anything other than satire because his serious posts always come out as rabid neo-constructionalist critiques of Engels’s ‘The Housing Question’ or slavishly devoted tributes to Metallica frontman James Hetfield.

  13. ak 13
    3 March 2008 at 4:56 pm

    and ever wonder what happened to the billboard campaign? This just in……

    ALL OUT OF EVIL: TORY FREEDOM FIGHTERS SEEK FRESH FIENDS

    The National Party-funded Free Speech Coalition admitted today that its billboard campaign comparing Helen Clark to various despots and dictators has hit a snag: they’ve run out of monsters. After comparing Clark to Mao, Lenin, Banaimarama, Mugabe and several other global villains, it appears the Pol Pot has run dry and organisers are considering a children’s competition to identify suitable suspects.
    “It’s an old marketing trick” says FSC organiser and Truthblog host “Moley” Farrar: “get your material from the level of your target audience”.

    Truth understands that billboard contractors have also experienced problems with the campaign: “It’s been a nightmare all round” says “Erections ‘R Us” prinicpal Macaroon (“Puffy”) Slater. “The Hitler and Devil ones were just a shambles. What with the RSA chucking scones, the Bretheren threatening to sue for plagiarism and people trying to order pizza – we just can’t get it up.”

    There have also been problems with the artwork: several bystanders at Puffy’s latest erection efforts incorrectly identified the Hitler and Devil posters as Roger Douglas and Bill Ralston. One, Waylon Ranapia commented: “Well flick my fanny with a double-jointed dildo, but am I the only one who sees Monty Burns in a less than unflattering light? (Oooo, Satre jism, am I on TV!!!)”

    The competion will run for two weeks and is intially open only to members the ultra-youth wing of the National Party, the Torylets, and hopes are high:
    “We’ve found the Torylets a good source for all kinds of National material in the past” says Farrar.

    ends.

  14. Steve Pierson 14
    3 March 2008 at 4:59 pm

    ak. outstanding.

  15. outofbed 15
    3 March 2008 at 5:01 pm

    Now that was funny very funny

  16. outofbed 16
    3 March 2008 at 8:10 pm

    So when is the citizens jury going to happen then ?

  17. burt 17
    3 March 2008 at 8:37 pm

    ak

    Perhaps the EPMU could run a campaign against the Free Speech Coalition , oh that’s right – they haven’t been able to register yet….

    Ain’t life a bitch when you shoot yourself in the foot supporting a govt when you are too partisan to see how stupid and incompetent they are. Forth term at any price – what a pack of dim-bulbs.

  18. burt 18
    3 March 2008 at 10:33 pm

    rOb

    all the sins… perhaps you could clarify what you are saying here?

    However even if I were guilt of ‘all the sins’, that wouldn’t make them any more acceptable in others.

  19. r0b 19
    3 March 2008 at 9:43 pm

    Burt, you are guilty of all the sins that you rant against.

  20. r0b 20
    3 March 2008 at 11:30 pm

    all the sins perhaps you could clarify what you are saying here?

    That came partly from your post above, and partly from one thread over:

    http://www.thestandard.org.nz/?p=1262#comment-21197

    You rant against “partisans” (“f’d in the head”) when you are one of the worst partisans posting here. (1) For example, just above, of the government “how stupid and incompetent they are. Forth term at any price – what a pack of dim-bulbs.”. (2) You persistently use bad language (“fucking Labour party”, “lying bitch”) and schoolboy taunts (“helengrad”, “dear leader”). (3) You persistently repeat Kiwiblog Right lies and talking points. (4) You admit that you are not interested in holding National to the same standards of accountability as Labour.

    Burt, you are a partisan who rants about partisans, hence guilty of the sins that you rant against. It doesn’t matter Burt, we all are what we are, go in peace. I just find it odd is all.

  21. Big Bruv 21
    4 March 2008 at 9:39 am

    Who is the shelia pictured next to John Key?

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