Who am I thinking of voting for and Why?

Kevin_rc_ie

Pre Manifesto

President
Hmm… the big one. Future politicians and life line presenters. Difficult decision to make.

Séamus McGoldrick seems to be endorsed by some ppl on boards. People calling him shambles however, is less encouraging.
Ed Reilly, This guy sounds familiar but I'll wait until I see his picture and manifesto before I comment further

Deputy President
Well this is another I suppose, semi-important one. I think they get to be editor of the UR (yay). Not sure what else they do specifically.

Séamus Murphy.
Well this guy is a really tall dude, used to be a member of the boat club. BESS student. I had a fist fight with him many moons ago and he gave me a good go so he'll probably get my vote.

Andrew Payne. This guy I think writes for UR, might be deputy editor so probably feels he's done enough work to deserve a go himself. I usually wouldn't disagree but I'm yet to box him in the head so he's in 2nd place so far.

Education Officer
As EduCat may agree, I think this is quite an important position and in the hands of a dope could be a disaster. But with some wise, bang on chap or chapess in charge, lots of good work can be done.

Dónal McCormack
Well this guy posts on boards and based on our 2 2minute conversations he seems like a reasonable candidate. I'll not say too much in case I somehow put my foot in it (as if I could do that).

Denise O'Connell
A friend of mine, fairly rational chap, says he knows her and that she's capable of doing a descent job. But not knowing her myself I won't vote for her. Unless she's hot. (joking ) Unless she’s hot and promises to go down a dark alley with me.

Welfare Officer
Well this is another position that demands a person with a lot of individual initiative. I know nothing of these two candidates so won't say much.

Thomas Lowth ???
Stephanie O'Brien ???

Ents Officer

Some will argue this is the most important position of all. The Ents officer is/was responsible for the running of the Trinity ball and all the other Entertainment thingys. I think the current officer did a good job getting quality nights out going on a continual basis. But I'm not sure if he brought a huge amount of creativity. I mean doing things that's not been done before. But he is doing a very good job, don’t get me wrong.

Niall Hughes
This dude runs the cards society, is a member of the ENTs crew and I think is boss of the BESS week. He organized the giant water balloon fight and all that stuff. He’s a very likeable person and I think, with his experience working with Niall Morris and his proven ability to come up and do stuff on his own, he’ll be getting my vote.

ApeXaviour

Basically you can say bugger all pre-manifesto..

Kevin_rc_ie

Yes you can if you know the candidates.

ApeXaviour

You don't know sht

Kevin_rc_ie

Yes APex. Cause we all know MAnifestos are absolute will and testaments. Yeah. Lets base our opinions on someones ideals of what they will do and not who they are. Yes. That's good logic. It's the type of logic of someone who reads alot about poker on the internet and thinks he's going to win a big pot nexttime he plays.

Kappar

Seamus "Whole Hog" McGoldrick for President. Wait untill you see this guy's manafesto.

ApeXaviour

Kevin_rc_ie wrote:

Lets base our opinions on someones ideals of what they will do and not who they are. Yes. That's good logic. It's the type of logic of someone who reads alot about poker on the internet and thinks he's going to win a big pot nexttime he plays.

Again mr roman catholic, you don't know sht..
Firstly: that's not at all what I'm doing.
Secondly: Knowing that someone is tall, that their nickname is shambles, that they've written an article here and there or that their name sounds familiar does NOT constitute knowing them. You know one of them, dassit.. I will reiterate that you don't know sht.

Their manifestos while obviously not "absolute will and testaments", will give us a far better idea of how well they will do their jobs, more than their height anyway.


Yeah kappar I read it, it's certainly.. out there.

Kevin_rc_ie

No, I actually KNOW two of the candidates. The rest I don't know but know of.

Secondly, I will vote for people I know who I like over people I don't know but have a "better" manifesto.

Thirdly, the fact the thread is prefixed by the words PREMANIFESTO I think allows me to discuss people PREMANIFESTO.

I'm not saying a manifesto isn't important, I'm saying that knowing someone for 10 years is better than judging someone off a a5 piece of paper.

Fourthly, If someone I knew told me to vote for X because X is good and I read nothing contradictory to that, I'd have absolutely no problem voting for person X even if Y's mugshot and precious manifesto seems better.

Why are you arguing this? Just to annoy me? I hope you lose all your money gambling on the internet and become a man-whore for rough russian sailors.

Actually, just thought of another point. Voting for someone, based on their manifesto is like voting for a politician based on his/her ability to speak in public. Yes it's important, but can be misleading. I'd rate Bertie AHern over Pat Rabitte anyday, but Pat would probably beat his socks off in a PHil debate. BUT BIG DEAL

Kevin_rc_ie

On another note, Apex has outlined to me, in a formerly private conversation, that voting for someone based on their mugshot is a "shallow shallow" act. I actually, beg to differ on this.

Student politics, is, and always will be notouriusly fickle. I'd say about 90% of voters would have never of heard of 90% of candidates immediately prior to announcement. And that's been conservative.

The Candidates then go out the business of upping their profile, making the election not totally unlike a popularity contest.

Students, the voters, and I refuse to accept anything else on this, will vote for people they know and like. That's why candidates like to get out and shake hands and introduce themselves as much as possible. It's only natural human behaviour.

Well, not everyone who votes gets to meet every candidate and in the end, their opinion on them will be based on thier manifesto, their picture and what info they've heard about them tru word of mouth.

Basically my point is, if your picture makes you come across as a competent and reasonable person you have a much much mcuh better chance of been elected then if your picture makes you look weird and scary.

ApeXaviour

Kevin_rc_ie wrote:

No, I actually KNOW two of the candidates. The rest I don't know but know of.

Knowing of is not knowing.

Kevin_rc_ie wrote:

Secondly, I will vote for people I know who I like over people I don't know but have a "better" manifesto.

Hitler was supposedly a nice person.. His manifesto on the other hand aint my cup of tea.

Kevin_rc_ie wrote:

Thirdly, the fact the thread is prefixed by the words PREMANIFESTO I think allows me to discuss people PREMANIFESTO.

Of course it does, it allows you to talk crap seriously as you're heavily uninformed.. Which is what I was pointing out

Kevin_rc_ie wrote:

I'm not saying a manifesto isn't important, I'm saying that knowing someone for 10 years is better than judging someone off a a5 piece of paper.

lol, I seriously doubt you know more than one of those people for 10 years? I repeat, you don't know sht.

Kevin_rc_ie wrote:

Why are you arguing this? Just to annoy me? I hope you lose all your money gambling on the internet and become a man-whore for rough russian sailors.

I'm arguing cos you're wrong. oh and lmao

Kevin_rc_ie wrote:

Actually, just thought of another point. Voting for someone, based on their manifesto is like voting for a politician based on his/her ability to speak in public.

No it's not, it's absolutely nothing like that, cos you can write and rewrite a manifesto. A better description would be this is their CV, and we are hiring them for a job based on this which we ARE..

Kevin_rc_ie

Knowing of is not knowing.

Yeah it's knowing of

Hitler was supposedly a nice person.. His manifesto on the other hand aint my cup of tea

Not going to dignify that rubbish with a reply. Woops, just replied.

to talk crap seriously

yeah, sure.

I'm arguing cos you're wrong.

You're wrong.

A better description would be this is their CV, and we are hiring them for a job based on this which we ARE..

Well, judging by that you've never employed someone, and know no one who has employed someone.

You're very naive.

Kevin_rc_ie

The fact everyone else is staying away from this thread is beginning to annoy me so unless someone else backs up Apex's stupid comments I'm refusing to reply to his pointless arguments about how hitler is a nice guy and by voting for ppl based on my perceived view of there personality is going to cause a genocide.

Agent Smith

whats the pay for a su officer a week?

ApeXaviour

Jesus h christ kev just what the hell is wrong with you..? You're turning into evilution! Those last two posts were infuriatingly muppetish..

xeduCat

I'm pretty certain that someone asked me in an earlier post whether the photo made a difference? Had it been edited out? Or am I losing my mind?

Anyway, in answer to the question (if I didn't imagine it) ... manifesto can be important but is not everything. Some candidates kick ass at class addresses (either in terms of what they say or their sheer ability to get around to as many as possible). Conventional wisdom says how you do at hustings doesn't make a huge difference (as the turnout is about 10-15 times the attendance at these!), although I've seen candidates be damaged at hustings and fail to recover from it...

Prior knowledge makes a big difference for certain candidates. Especially if it affects turnout, I think (hard to tell as we don't have detailed stats on who votes, or on who wins in certain areas, and the polls that have been done are typically crappy as they have a sample of 100, and it's usually random, not weighted in any way).

Pretty picture? Well mine wasn't very pretty but maybe I'm the exception. I also had the legendary and much-laughed at bicycle photo. The real story on that is that the bike was stolen the day the manifesto went to print. Poetic justice? You tell me.

Manifestos will be floating around from Monday 14th (posters can go up from midnight). However you'll get an idea from the election supp in the Record, which is out tonight (well, an hour ago, just back from pushing a milk trolley full of bundles to the Hamilton...)

xeduCat

agent smith wrote:

whats the pay for a su officer a week?

Not enough

e232. It wouldn't be too bad if we kept 9-5, but that's a nice concept in my world...

Agent Smith

what dates the election?

xeduCat

agent smith wrote:

what dates the election?

week starting 21st February (week 7) - polling times to be confirmed but will basically be Tue evening, most of Wed, and Thu up till 6. Hospitals etc. are different times. Have yet to sort out CDS and Nursing. Trinity Hall Monday night (probably). Teacher colleges week 6. We have about 10different polling places...not all at the same time thank God.

Agent Smith

funky....

Nietzschean

how come polling place out in trinity hall? can i've one in my apt block? save me some effort...

xeduCat

Depends. Have you got a thousand Trinity students in your building? 'Cause I'm sure we could give it a go if the numbers are any way decent

Sorry. T Hall is something we're trying this year, we'll be having candidate speeches and questions (i.e. typical hustings) out there for the first time, and it made sense to put on a couple of hours of polling while the travelling circus is out there anyway...

If you feed us well, we could probably do your house though.

KIDDING. (Just so I don't get in trouble!)

Kevin_rc_ie

Jeez that was some smart cat.

I was asking you how important the picture was because you won an election (not sure who you were up against). Then my nemesis told me that was really unfair and I should edit it. I was like what are you talking about man. He basically inferred you had a stupid photo in your campaign or something and it could be a sensitive issue. I knew you had browsed the board but as you didn't reply then I'd thought i'd get away editing it out. If I remember correctly, which I probably don't, you looked nerdy in your photo, but because you were running for Ed. I thought it was appopriate (your nerdy appearance) and would enforce my point (photos are important). But now it's coming across as some cloack and dagger meaness. Anyway, seeing as it's not important (but sorry about the bike). I wasn't around college last year for the elections so that's maybe why it's all a bit fuzzy. But while, Educat, I've got your attention. What you thinking of doing after you finish (july 15th???)? YOu intending on continung your quasi-political career or are you heading straight for the Stonybatter district? Maybe a year off? Or is it top secret? Or am I prying?

Kevin_rc_ie

In the interests of fairness.

Kevin_rc_ie

Kevin_rc_ie

Kevin_rc_ie

xeduCat

God you miss a lot when people edit their posts and don't tell you...

No I've no issue about past photos, apart from a well-developed ability to laugh at myself. And no, I don't even bother to try and challenge suggestions of overwhelming nerdiness, because I haven't got too many arguments in my defence

The only thing I would add is that I've probably got worse rather than better (at being photographed and at not being a nerd) since I got the job.

Anyway, since you asked, next year is (more likely than not) postgrad research in law & technology, which is what I'd intended to do before getting elected. No legal career wanted here!

Kevin_rc_ie

Kevin_rc_ie

Kevin_rc_ie

I probably should be apologising for this .............but one last one....

Kevin_rc_ie

God you miss a lot when people edit their posts and don't tell you...

No I've no issue about past photos, apart from a well-developed ability to laugh at myself. And no, I don't even bother to try and challenge suggestions of overwhelming nerdiness, because I haven't got too many arguments in my defence

The only thing I would add is that I've probably got worse rather than better (at being photographed and at not being a nerd) since I got the job.

Anyway, since you asked, next year is (more likely than not) postgrad research in law & technology, which is what I'd intended to do before getting elected. No legal career wanted here!

Woops nearly missed that, got carried away. Only 200 odd yoyos a year? I was talking to a guy out in UCD running for Edu and I asked him the same question. He said they got cloerer to 300 and this was a bit less than TCD because UCD wanted to have a more socialist touch to their union. He may have been joking then. I just smiled.

I want to be an astronaut when I grow up. Or a fireman. Or a ....Ninja.