It is becoming a bit like the Birther movement in the US. Over in the land of the free and the brave some chose to exercise their freedom of speech by claiming that the President of the United States was not born there but was actually born in Kenya. There is no proof that this actually occurred. Their basic motivation appears to be that Obama is black. Deep down they cannot accept that a black person could or should be their leader. And so they have talked up an amazing conspiracy theory. It is full of dog whistle, after all they are not complaining that their leader is black, just that he was born in a nation where most of the people had dark skins. And he is obviously not an American, so why should he lead them.
And despite POTUS producing an unimpeachable piece of paper showing that he is American born, they refuse to believe this and still claim that he is an Alien. As far as I am aware a poll has not been conducted but I suspect that a significant part of the Birther movement believe that Obama was born on one of Jupiter’s moons. I guess that democracy requires an acceptance that some people may have the most bat shit crazy beliefs possible.
Despite their efforts, actually probably because of their efforts, Obama was recently reelected leader of the free world. The last election was fascinating. Obama probably won the first because he lifted everyone with his soaring oratory and vision, he won the last election because lefties and progressives, even while harbouring significant reservations, insisted that their country should be run by someone who was at least sane.
Over here things are developing in the same way. David Cunliffe has recently received the overwhelming endorsement of Labour Party members and affiliates. He has then engaged in a dream week where he has been concise and competent when interviewed by the media, sharp with his policy announcements and somehow he has made the Labour caucus look united. He then had a significant bump in the latest Herald Digipoll and for the first time in 6 years Labour and National are suddenly getting close to equal pegging.
So what does National do? It engages its social media geniuses to try and destroy Cunliffe’s reputation.
First off Matthew Hooton calls Cunliffe a liar because he said he had some involvement, not specified, in the formation of Fonterra. Not once, but four times on National Radio. An apology today by Kathryn Ryan shows what RNZ thinks of Hooton’s claims.
And then Cameron leaps to the fore and decides to attack Cunliffe’s release of a document showing that when he was with BCG he did work that led up to the formation of Fonterra. Not just with one post, but with multiple posts where he quotes people such as “A Reader”, also known as a staffer of National’s Parliamentary Research Unit, as confirmation that there is something dodgy about the timesheet that Cunliffe produced.
So let me get this right. Cunliffe produces a fake timesheet that he says was provided by Boston Consultancy Group, one of the most well respected consultancies in the world with offices in 75 countries and BCG will not notice if it is a fake? Do you think that if the timesheet is false BCG may actually express its concern?
This has about the same chance as Obama being Kenya born. Actually it is less likely.
We are witnessing the birth of our very own birther movement.
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