Should Enda Kenny just sack his handlers and speak his mind?

Sleepy

The vast majority of criticisme Enda Kenny receives seems to be related to his lack of charisma in the media. However, when you hear of him being met in person the stories are almost uniformly positive.

This has me wondering, would he be best off to be less afraid of making a blunder in the media, sacking his PR advisors/media coaches etc and just being himself when interviewed?

I'm sure he'd make some mistakes (as most of us would in an interview situation) but would these be less damaging to him than his current public profile as something of a rabbit in the headlights?

Take his Late Late appearance last week, would it really have damaged his support to just have given an honest answer on not being prepared to share power with Sinn Fein? While saying something like 'I'm not prepared to do business with those who hold truck with the murder of our Gardai' would ensure a media frenzy, I think it would actually improve his performance in the polls as people started to see him for the man he is rather than the 'cardboard cutout' politician he's usually perceived to be.

Red_Marauder

No. Not unless PJ Mara is looking for a job.

Yes, Kenny is stiff, he's rehearsed and he is not a natural orator. But these are personal faults, not the fault of his handlers.
The speeches that his people are giving him, and the policies that he is expounding, are perfectly sound. PR have made him considerably blunderproof, and make-up have put him in the garb of a statesman, and these things are helping him, not hindering.

His response to Tubridy on the Late Late the other night was simply Kenny being unable to think quickly enough. There is no doubt that he has rehearsed a line about links to criminality and SF policy being inadequate (that's what every other FG member says on TV) but for whatever reason, words escape him. I fear that if he sacked his PR people, we'd see a lot more of that kind of thing.

In my opinion, his advisors have made Kenny acceptable to the public. Sure, he's probably not their first choice, but he will do, and that's not a bad beginning.

Red_Marauder

Red_Marauder wrote: »

His response to Tubridy on the Late Late the other night was simply Kenny being unable to think quickly enough. There is no doubt that he has rehearsed a line about links to criminality and SF policy being inadequate (that's what every other FG member says on TV) but for whatever reason, words escape him. I fear that if he sacked his PR people, we'd see a lot more of that kind of thing.

In my opinion, his advisors have made Kenny acceptable to the public. Sure, he's probably not their first choice, but he will do, and that's not a bad beginning.

His tendency to run out on his own with ideas eg abolishing the senate makes me fear that all this talk of FG being a "Team" is a load of Guff.

Why has no one told him to dump that trademark smirk he gives after nearly everything he says ??!!
For heavens sake it's awfull-why has no one told him this.
It's the first thing that a handler should be weaning him off.
It's as if he is saying with his smirk after his every sentence "ha ha I put you in your place there Boyo didn't I..."
When in fact he may have uttered something ordinary or mundane.

Just like back in the days of John Bruton [another FG man who used speak first engage brain later...] when the handlers made him talk more slowly with less in the sentences so there would be less hic up's.

If anyone in FG wants to hire me for a reasonable fee... the pm feature is that way

<

---