Andrew Dickens: 'Brawler' Simon Bridges the winner of Kris Faafoi fiasco

Andrew Dickens Afternoons

So after the Faafoi fiasco the question is who were the winners and who were the losers.
To my mind, the biggest loser was the celebrity who leaked his own pleading texts while the big winner is Simon Bridges.
There’s been a lot of chatter that Kris Faafoi should resign because he broke the Cabinet Manual and intervened in an immigration case for a celebrity friend. The only problem with that is that he didn’t.
At that is self evident in a number of ways. Firstly, the celebrity’s step dad is still fighting immigration for a visa. If there was an intervention, it failed. There’s no proof of an actual intervention. All there is are some texts.
Secondly, the fact that the leaker of the texts was the celebrity himself. Now he didn’t do it for the good of New Zealand democracy as a whole. He did it out of anger that his pleas for some help in his family’s immigration case had gone unheeded.
Faafoi was guilty of something we all do. Not saying no but saying maybe. “We should work together on a project in the future”. “Yeah maybe”
We all know that maybe really means no. Faafoi said he’d see what he could do when he knew that there was nothing he could do. He made a mistake. Not one that needs him to be fired.
The celebrity meanwhile comes out looking like a spoilt brat who dobbed in a mate because a mate wouldn’t do what he asked. That makes him the biggest loser because before this fiasco he was perceived as an all round nice guy.
But Simon Bridges wins the day because of how well he jumped on the issue.
He hasn’t joined the resign or fire mob because he knows full well that almost every MP has been guilty of the “See What I Can Do” text. What he did do was come up with some quick and easy slogans. Firstly, he starting chanting that Jacinda is a weak leader. That’s all. Not how she’s weak. Just a flat out statement.
He also said this government falls under celebrity influence. Even though of course the case showed that the celebrity had no influence at all. But never mind that. Don’t let the facts get in the way of a good political slogan. Weak leader influenced by celebrity. And repeat until it becomes a reality in voters’ minds
Simon Bridges and his team are getting very good at this. He has a crack social media team as we saw with the question time mini videos that Trevor Mallard cracked down on. They come up with good hashtag slogans that stick. One of the first was Part Time PM. He infuriates interviewers by repeating the same pat phrases over and over but he’s just making sure the voters get it stuck in their head.
Simon is a street brawler and he’s getting better at it. He’s no gentleman politician like Bill English. He likes it in the gutter.
Add this to Winston Peters and New Zealand First fighting for their survival then as Audrey Young noted in the weekend, this election is going to be brutal and that’s just the way Simon Bridges likes it.

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