Do the Irish Times have a substantial sum of money on Michael D Higgins to win the Irish presidential election? Probably not, given that Michael D is quoted by Boylesports on odds of 1/50. Even the mountebanks of the paper of record would be reluctant to invest with those kind of odds.
On the other hand, if you read a piece by Olive Callan in the Irish Times today, you’ll wonder if you haven’t wandered into the present President’s election headquarters. Under the heading “Higgins’s age is an asset, not a liability”, Callan smothers the present incumbent in honey while laying into his opponents. Gavin Duffy is dismissed as the Snarler-in-chief for questioning Higgins’s energy levels. Callan speaks of Michael D’s “almost operatic crescendos and heady flourishes”. This deliverer of “high-octane” speeches is contrasted with Joan Freeman (“monotoned and chilly”), Gavin Duffy (“grand master of dull sales-speak”), Liadh Ní Riada (“talks as though she’s being held hostage and forced to compete in the worst election campaign in history”).
Does Callan confront the core fact, successfully avoided in debate so far, that Higgins misspoke/told a lie seven years ago when he promised he would be a one-term president? Indeed he does, but it turns out this unfortunate misspeak/lie was the fault of others, not the man who spoke it: “Unfair media pressure led to his declaration that he would serve just one term. It was the only pledge that came back to haunt him, but there was little discussion about why he was forced to make that promise in the first place.”
I don’t know why Michael D bothers with spin-doctors or posters or door-knockers. With a cheerleader like the Irish Times, he could shoot someone in O’Connell Street while promising to replace the Parnell monument with one to Donald Trump, and still get elected.
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