The guy’s tired already

Written By: - Date published: 1:55 pm, March 13th, 2009 - 65 comments
Categories: john key, national - Tags: ,

key-9-march-2009-press-conference-4

If there’s one thing that strikes you about John Key’s post-cabinet press conference this week, it isn’t the scintillating prose or erudite diction. It isn’t even the brilliant plans brimming with enthusiasm, intelligence and vision. What’s remarkable is that the guy looks exhausted.

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He’s been in the job all of 3 months, extended holidays in Hawaii not withstanding, and already he looks completely buggered. What ever you think of Clark, after 9 energetic years in the job she was still up for another term, even if some of her ministers weren’t. Key on the other hand looks as if he won’t even last the full term, let alone 3 terms.

key-9-march-2009-press-conference-3

Where’s the dynamic powerhouse leadership? A few weeks as PM and Key’s already worn down to looking and sounding like a wrung-out hack. Where’s the stamina? 

I’d be a bit worried if that was my pony.

(It really is worth looking at the performance in the link if you can – at times Key seems barely able to keep awake. Funnily, because it’s so telling, Key perks up noticeably when demonstrating his remarkably detailed knowledge of the British honours system, then deflates once again when he reveals his comprehensive ignorance of any details about The Great National Cycleway for which he’s taken personal responsibility.)

65 comments on “The guy’s tired already ”

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  1. gingercrush 1
    13 March 2009 at 2:19 pm

    At least one doesn’t have to suffer the hair and the brown wonky teeth of our former Prime Minister. Regardless, Key looks healthy to me.

    • Tigger 1.1
      13 March 2009 at 2:32 pm

      Look GC, if you want to roll in that gutter then lets be honest, Key’s hair ain’t his strong point. It’s receding faster than New Zealand’s employment rate.

      And anyway, I’ll take wonky teeth over unintelligible speech any day. The accent is so impenetrable that I have NO idea what Key is saying when he speaks. Is it even English?

      • gingercrush 1.1.1
        13 March 2009 at 2:38 pm

        You call it unintelligible speech. I call it New Zealand speak. And it beats listening to Helen Clark whose voice I couldn’t stand.

        Really this comes down to partisan politics as always. The left don’t like John Key. The right does like John Key. The left liked Helen Clark. On the whole the right didn’t like Helen Clark.

        • The Sprout 1.1.1.1
          13 March 2009 at 2:44 pm

          yet both the left and right agree that for 9 years Clark was tireless while Key is worn out 3 months into the job

        • Felix 1.1.1.2
          13 March 2009 at 2:57 pm

          “I call it New Zealand speak.”

          Nonsense. I live in NZ so you’re going to have a hard time convincing me that our local dialect consists of using words in the wrong order, the wrong context and the wrong tense which is what Key does every time he opens his mouth.

          Either you’re too thick to notice or you just have very low standards.

    • Quoth the Raven 1.2
      13 March 2009 at 6:37 pm

      Ginger – I have to agree that this a pretty poor post. There are many reasons why someone may look tired. But you Ginger are doing yourself no favours sewer trawling talking about Helen’s god given appearance. I don’t care what the fuck someone looks like it’s what they’re doing that counts. And Key is up to fuck all as are you with your perverse little comments.

  2. Snail 2
    13 March 2009 at 2:32 pm

    The common human thread: in the most part two ears, two eyes, one mouth..

    and what does ‘gingercrush’ make of it.. one wonky toof an’ bad hair, according to this commenter. FFS if tired-looking is “healthy” what are ya! Don’t answer that.. mindless seems to say it all..

  3. giggles 3
    13 March 2009 at 2:41 pm

    Quick, someone get the airbrush out…..

    Honestly, each appearance looks more desperate than the last.

    • giggles 3.1
      13 March 2009 at 4:14 pm

      Why did you amend what I said?
      I said “each post looks more desperate than the last”
      You changed it.
      I rest my case. You are desperate.

  4. Draco T Bastard 4
    13 March 2009 at 2:57 pm

    He looks damn tired there – I almost feel sorry for him.

  5. higherstandard 5
    13 March 2009 at 3:29 pm

    Ye Gods the world must be coming to an end …….. Key looks a bit tired ………quick lets call a snap election.

  6. DeeDub 6
    13 March 2009 at 3:41 pm

    He looks like a late Picasso in the last pic….. those eyes are almost going in opposite directions!

    Perhaps he’s trying to keep one on Wodney and one an Sharples & Turia?? Don’t forget to keep an eye out behind you for that English chappie, eh John?! 😉

    • gingercrush 6.1
      13 March 2009 at 3:53 pm

      Eh its Goff who should be looking out. Look even most people here think Keys popularity will last for another year or two. That will undoubtedly put huge pressure on Goff.

      Mind you I think Key’s popularity will remain the same as now and will easily get a second term. Labour meanwhile will self-destruct till the old guard are gone and replaced by their talented backbenchers (most of whom are far more talented than anyone on the front bench).

      What will undoubtedly be evident is that those stimulus packages so heralded in some parts here that the US, England, Japan, China and Australia are doing will be shown to be largely ineffective. And for the US at least will sometime in the future put them back in recession. Because the debt their government is carrying is far too large for their economy to absorb and will bring pain to them. In fact its so funny how much those countries are putting into their stimulus packages. Yet all those countries still expect unemployment to rise and for some of them rather dramatically.

      The idea that you can have these huge stimulus packages and that somehow they will save jobs is at best optimistic and at worse pathetic.

      • DeeDub 6.1.1
        13 March 2009 at 4:52 pm

        GC, you are such a humourless little gimp sometimes?

        Was that SERIOUSLY a reply to MY post???

        If so get a life, buddy.

        • gingercrush 6.1.1.1
          13 March 2009 at 5:08 pm

          That post was suppose to be humourous? Really? Well fail. Next time try harder or wait don’t try at all. There are some very clever people that commentate here. You are not one of them.

          • DeeDub 6.1.1.1.1
            13 March 2009 at 5:22 pm

            Jeez, lighten UP GC?!!

            You might lose your ‘nice guy’ status ’round here.

          • Felix 6.1.1.1.2
            13 March 2009 at 5:43 pm

            gc you patronising little fuck, you’re not smart enough to throw that sort of shit around. Even an undernourished moron like yourself should understand the sense in which the word “humour” was used (zOMG I thought humour meanz funneeez like bugz bunnneez!!).

            Your predictable cheerleading bullshit is getting a bit tired anyway gc, but the very least you could do would be to learn some basic English and fuck off while you’re doing it.

          • BLiP 6.1.1.1.3
            14 March 2009 at 1:37 am

            Twat!

            [lprent: was there a point attached to that? Accidental humour I know.. However dropping into toilet humour is a bit pointless unless you associate it with some actual discussion]

  7. Tanya 7
    13 March 2009 at 4:19 pm

    This is absolutely splitting hairs, anyone can look tired in a photo, it’s just scraping the barrel for something to say. Is this is the best you have? Come on, picky, picky.

  8. gobsmacked 8
    13 March 2009 at 4:37 pm

    “Yeah, look, coupla things, quite frankly, I’m of the view that, if you take a step back, there’s a coupla issues here, and frankly, I mean, look, if you look at the bigger picture, the reality is, there’s no silver bullet in a rolling maul, but going forward, there are some issues around that, frankly.”

    He’s tired? What about the rest of us, having to listen to him?

  9. Reg 9
    13 March 2009 at 4:39 pm

    No surprise really- he has never known hard work before. What a loser. He has just had an extended holiday in Hawaii too. Wonder how many people are starting to regret voting for National .What with him and mad dog Nick Smith- what a pathetic excuse for a government.

  10. gomango 10
    13 March 2009 at 4:41 pm

    Of course he’s tired. Up all night plotting how to introduce slavery. Carving up the worlds resources with his illuminati mates. And if you want to eat a baby for breakfast you need to turn on the oven no later than 3AM, so of course he is tired. Duh.

    • higherstandard 10.1
      13 March 2009 at 5:19 pm

      I think you’ve cracked it.

    • Snail 10.2
      13 March 2009 at 8:57 pm

      hi gomango,

      the use you make of baby’ in this comment lacks some contextual understanding. Originally it was used satirically by an anglican priest to ‘attack’ both poor governing attitude and poor law/s.

      As I recall you have used it quite inappropriately several times.. and now risk insulting informed anglicans. not least.

      this advice in your interest since I know you capable of good grace in such matters.

  11. Rachael Le Mer 11
    13 March 2009 at 5:23 pm

    What a silly thread. Yawn.

  12. sweeetdisorder 12
    13 March 2009 at 6:14 pm

    Gotta love the political analysis at the standard. What do you call this , poli-photo analysis?

    • lprent 12.1
      13 March 2009 at 6:26 pm

      Ummm wasn’t this a staple at most of the wingnut sites for the last 3 years or so?
      We have no brains therefore we must attack people because they were female? Or the fact that they had high voices. Or that they were gay? Or almost anything that meant they were not a cretin who comments in a sewer.

      From memory you were one of the offenders. Now you want to stifle the same kind of debate. Don’t be such a dipshit. At least here the dog whistling will remain on topic.

      Looking at the PM being tired has some relevance to the political system. Certainly a lot more then the misogynist jerks at the sewer ever bothered to find.

  13. Pascal's bookie 13
    13 March 2009 at 6:28 pm

    “What do you call this…”

    I call it 3 pictures of a guy looking pretty rinsed.

  14. sweeetdisorder 14
    13 March 2009 at 6:37 pm

    What debate Lynn, its a photo. Thats all it is. But please, make up you own story to go along with it. Using that logic, we might as well turn he sound off question time and just make up stories to go along with that as well.

    • Pascal's bookie 14.1
      13 March 2009 at 6:50 pm

      So you’re not one of the chaps that kept bleating about perception being reality in politics?

    • lprent 14.2
      14 March 2009 at 9:15 am

      It is a video. Those are just three shots off it. The video is about 30-45 minutes. He looks like a zombie except for a couple of places where he raises a smile. Those almost creak into position and then his face drops again.

      He does handle the questions ok most of the time, but sometimes he seems to want to answer, but doesn’t understand the questions. When he gets the right questions (ie one that he has been briefed on), he then trots out the answer.

      It is either fatigue or he is sick. I suspect it is fatigue in that he is having to cram a lot of stuff in his head. He has to be one of the most monumentally unprepared PM’s that I know of, and coming in the start of a deep world recession. I think he’ll burn out.

  15. Rachael Le Mer 15
    13 March 2009 at 6:49 pm

    Who is the king hitter for National? Trevor Mallard was a good puncher for Labour.

  16. sweeetdisorder 16
    13 March 2009 at 7:00 pm

    Pascal, yes, perception is reality is very true in politics. Thats different from some ‘debate’ about a photo. There is no debate, its just attach your own story. If you had 6 months worth of ‘tired’ photos then you might be having a debate (and constructing a new reality), however, to adjust the metaphor, one picture doesn’t make an photo album.

    • Pascal's bookie 16.1
      13 March 2009 at 8:11 pm

      It makes a start though sweeet, and whatever you want to say about those photo’s, he does look tired. Sprout noticed and did a post about it. Now you’re crying about it. Point to sprout.

    • Draco T Bastard 16.2
      13 March 2009 at 9:35 pm

      perception is reality is very true in politics.

      And people wonder why the world is going hell in a hand-basket…

    • the sprout 16.3
      13 March 2009 at 10:49 pm

      Look at the link to the press conference, as I’ve recommended.
      Don’t just rely on 3 screen grabs from the feed – see it with your own eyes. In the conference it’s very obvious Key’s completely exhausted.

      That doesn’t mean that much in itself, but it is surprising to see such signs of fatigue so early on in Key’s tenure. Clark set a far more edifying example of someone that can go the distance in that respect.

  17. Snail 17
    13 March 2009 at 8:50 pm

    there’s no silver bullet in a rolling maul

    mebbe there’s a tight scrum.. nick et al sounding like skin on an ACC board drum..

    hey gc this is funnee.. okay.. about funny business

  18. gingercrush 18
    13 March 2009 at 8:59 pm


    gc you patronising little fuck, you’re not smart enough to throw that sort of shit around. Even an undernourished moron like yourself should understand the sense in which the word “humour’ was used (zOMG I thought humour meanz funneeez like bugz bunnneez!!).

    Your predictable cheerleading bullshit is getting a bit tired anyway gc, but the very least you could do would be to learn some basic English and fuck off while you’re doing it.

    Real mature Felix. How clever that you are able to use the word fuck I wouldn’t expect anything less from you here. Because if you actually said any substantive anywhere on this blog, it is most certainly news to me. Now I’m sorry if you find that crap humourous but quite frankly I find it pathetic. Its as pathetic as the same crap the right spout off with their ridiculous spelling of Liarbore.

    And last I looked you were in no position to tell anyone to “fuck off”.

    • DeeDub 18.1
      14 March 2009 at 12:10 am

      Ginger,

      Firstly, are you bipolar perchance? I only ask because you do exibit a few of the classic symptoms ie. you are very easily annoyed and angered (what my Grandmother would call a ‘Hapuka Head’), and you also seem to think you are somehow superior to others in intelligence – indeed to the point of obsession at times – shall we go back and count how many posts there are at the Standard where you call others’ intelligence into question? Your reaction to my post was arrogant and petty. If you can’t see that I suggest you get help.

      Secondly, Felix is quite right. Your posts are generally not much more than predictible ‘cheerleading’ for the right, and yet you seem somehow so swept up in your own ‘genius’ that it has escaped your attention that I’m sure most people here find your tired, angry rhetoric excruciating.

      Thirdly, go look at the video. Key looks SICK. It’s not just the photos.

      • gingercrush 18.1.1
        14 March 2009 at 1:43 am

        Um I really do not think I am superior to others in terms of intelligence. I have faith in my opinions as I would hope other people have in theirs. But that doesn’t mean I think my intelligence is somehow above others. Such thinking would be at best absurd. As Felix rightly points out my english isn’t the greatest. So no I do not think I am somehow more intelligent than others here. And it was you who actually started that crap. With statements such as “GC, you are such a humourless little gimp sometimes?” Yet you call me arrogant and petty?

        If my postings are somehow predictable cheerleading for the right. Then surely that same response can be given to many of the left here who merely cheerlead for the left.And if people find my postings excruciating. Then I would recommend they don’t read my posts. As I’m sure some do already.

        • Felix 18.1.1.1
          14 March 2009 at 2:23 am

          gc you boring troll.

          You can’t construct sentences. Because you’re not very smart. And your mock civility. Is a transparent and obvious facade. Which slips fairly regularly. So shut the fuck up. About others not being smart and/or polite.

    • Felix 18.2
      14 March 2009 at 1:29 am

      gc,

      Thanks for the excellent example of the “patronising little fuck” iness I spoke of earlier.

      Now be a good little fuck and go learn some manners.

      [lprent: Please don’t drink and write – it is pointless]

  19. Snail 19
    13 March 2009 at 9:03 pm

    just make up stories to go along with that as well.

    Since when didn’t they..? Front bench and all that.. testimony to responsibility..wot!

  20. gomango 20
    13 March 2009 at 9:23 pm

    snail. You’re so clever you make points I don’t understand. Well done. I must say I do enjoying hobnobbing with the intellectual elite from time to time. Maybe. It’s the stunted and. Grammar lack. Of. Mixed vocabulary and grammar. Insulted Anglicans. Care I not.

  21. Kevin Welsh 21
    13 March 2009 at 9:34 pm

    Maybe the poor sap is finally realising the potential damage Crusher and Mad Dog could have on his Government?

  22. Janet 22
    13 March 2009 at 10:20 pm

    He’s obviously got something on his mind, and being Prime Minister is not fun any more. Perhaps he is being black mailed?

  23. infused 23
    13 March 2009 at 11:13 pm

    Slow news day eh?

    Seems the standard is getting rather tired with the same old shit.

  24. ak 24
    13 March 2009 at 11:44 pm

    Good spotting sprout. Yes, the sheen is noticeably crumbling in this clip, and in view of the facts that he had just emerged from a cabinet meeting and that his keyfellating media lapdogs are minutely relaxing their lip pressure of late, one is reminded again of this pearler from last year’s Herald hagiography:

    One of Key’s own MPs thinks there is another, perhaps less ingratiating, element also propelling him toward the 9th floor of the Beehive. Speaking on condition of anonymity the MP says Key seems to harbour a deep instinct to be the most important guy in the room. Generally now that he is leader, he is exactly that. But if an outsider comes in who might challenge that status, Key is said to almost physically transform to take up the challenge.

    Perhaps that “deep instinct to be the most important guy in the room” (read: fundamental insecurity) also explains the early drive for personal wealth; the absolute lack of any evidence of selfless public service; the late decision to enter politics; the bizarre, puerile glee of election night; the obsessive “me too”, poll-driven, policy mix; the personal motto “whatever it takes”; the petty, “please everyone” PR desperation of late; and the palpable increase in animation and detailed knowledge when the subject moved to honours, knighthoods etc. (any bets on how many times the words “Sir John” have ricocheted around the trembling neurons behind those opaque, tranzrail eyes?)

    All of which, of course, is relatively harmless in the face of the ogre just round the corner. It matters not a titular that our most important guy downloads poll-porn in his underwear as the Black Death knocks at our door: Nice ol’ goober ain’t about to risk a telling-off from anyone just now, and as an intimate participant and beneficiary at the incubation of cyanocapitalism, he knows better than most the futility of resistance.

    What is a worry, is the standard reaction when our slippery narcissist is challenged. Looking tired is one thing: the likely full-blown tantrum when wee Johnny receives the inevitable trillionth of the heat that Helen endured, could kill us. He’d have taken us into Iraq, remember.

    And deprivation is just behind smoking as a cause of preventable death.

    Douglas, Thatcher and Reagan have the blood of millions on their hands: and their local ilk have just coldly engineered unbridled power for a like-minded individual with the emotional maturity of a 13-year-old.

    On the eve of a cataclysm.

    Gospel this sunday: Jesus forms a whip and casts the money lenders from the temple.

    How about this time round we reject the opium Jesus and embrace the real deal.

    Start plaiting. And be prepared to use it.

  25. RedLogix 25
    14 March 2009 at 9:48 am

    Ditto ak. Show stopper. Love it.

    What is a worry, is the standard reaction when our slippery narcissist is challenged.

    An old piece of wisdom tells us that anyone can look good when things are going well; it is only when events turn adversely that a man’s true character is revealed.

    So far JK has not been challenged in any major way, although his reactions to several minor incidents have been telling.

    And deprivation is just behind smoking as a cause of preventable death.

    Agreed, although I suggest that the while deprivation is the obvious driver, it is gross social inequality that is the more powerful force that erodes a man’s self-worth, his belief in a purpose in life.

    How about this time round we reject the opium Jesus and embrace the real deal.

    Oh yes. Only a lot of folk are not looking anymore; their collective arse stands sorely in need of one mighty kicking.

    (PS. It’s quite likely Key is sick. Lots of people, myself included, are under the weather with a bug right now.)

  26. Shona 26
    14 March 2009 at 10:55 am

    ak superb! set me up for the day many thanks.

  27. Ianmac 27
    14 March 2009 at 11:31 am

    I have the real reason that John Key is shattered! Due to a world wide economic downturn, John Key’s huge personal wealth has slipped down to almost nothing. He is said to be reconsidering his instruction to hold the MP Salary Review, and word has it that he would like a 15% increase- soon. Its true I tell you!

  28. Andrew W 28
    14 March 2009 at 12:16 pm

    Initially I thought this post was just intended as a wind-up to Nats, it was only later that I realised that it was genuine, and that sprout really doesn’t understand that those of us with real jobs (and I included HC when she was PM) do from time to time get tired.

  29. Snail 29
    14 March 2009 at 2:35 pm

    gomango,
    hobnobbing with the intellectual elite from time to time

    Yet if the satirist were also a famous author your misuse of the ‘baby’ content might leave you somewhat ruefully exposed..

    hence my interest in your interest.. and not so much my “clever” ness

    regards

  30. Snail 30
    14 March 2009 at 2:43 pm

    ak,
    as an intimate participant and beneficiary at the incubation of cyanocapitalism

    firm phraseology.. vg. Tell me though, the ‘cyano’ pre was that intended relate color and its imagery or prussic acid (toxicity).. or both..?

  31. mike 31
    14 March 2009 at 9:42 pm

    Gee – the lickspittles are getting desperate now. Attack the apperance when all else fails. Grow up FFS

  32. barnsleybill 32
    14 March 2009 at 10:32 pm

    Excellent, three months and you have descended to this.. it is nice to see the left has developed a wing nut end to rival the one at the other end.

  34. xy 34
    16 March 2009 at 11:17 am

    Stealing political techniques from Dr Who again?

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