That RTÉ Presidential candidates’ debate just now

I said I’d come back after viewing RTÉ’s presidential candidates’ quizzing, so here I am. Did I learn much? Well yes. Definitely.

1. Both Heather and Jim have looked at that poll with Catherine  Connolly headed for the horizon with 32%  opinion poll support, and Heather waaaay back at 23% and Jim at 15%.  Having more or less digested the bad news, they both decided they would have to attack Catherine, take as many lumps out of her as possible.  So Jim, who I’m almost feeling sorry for, tried to take over Áine Lawlor’s presenter role and fire questions at Catherine, and Heather on the other side of Catherine got stuck into her too. Throughout, Catherine smiled patiently, the way you mighy with two unruly children.   
2. Both Jim and Heather have big problems which are hung round their necks like dead albatrosses and show no sign  of slipping off. Heather was on board the good ship Government when the housing situation went from bad to worse.She may say she cares passionately about housing, she may say how much of the public’s money her government has put into housing,  but she can’t escape that she was around the cabinet table, and her party and Jim’s haven’t a yet shown that they  have the faintest idea how to solve it.
3. Apart from looking mildly ill when the word ‘Drones’ came up, Jim now has a housing-related problem eating him: he owes a former tenant over €3K. Which has been there unresolved for several years. But the main bad news is that Jim was a landlord. It’d be  fair to say that landlords aren’t the most popular people in homeless Ireland.   
4. After the programme, had anything changed? Not really -more confirmation that  Catherine is a grown-up woman who understands politics, and looks more grown-up with every word that Heather and Jim fire at her.  Look to opinion polls adding to Catherine’s share of potential voters.