BRIAN COWEN was coming down with flu the only time I met him. He had a thumping headache, a sore throat and was rocked with bouts of sneezing.

SHORT of tearing up the Mullingar accord with Fine Gael, Labour Party leader Pat Rabbitte appeared in a TV3 television interview to hint that the post-General Election landscape might be different.

Frank Luntz, the American pollster, pitched up on RTE One’s The Week in Politics programme last night, to take the political focus group — famously described by Bill Clinton as “a bunch of bull” — to a new and exciting level.

AS a means of testing the public mood, opinion polls have been the only show in town. Until now that is.