Enda should end this web affair and just be Enda

Efforts to mould Enda Kenny in a certain image are a mistake. Voters are not expecting miracles, he should just be himself, warts and all, writes Political Correspondent Shaun Connolly

ISN’T Enda Kenny just great? That is the clear and overwhelming view of the whole nation — well, according to the “people’s forum” that is the fresh- look Fine Gael website.

Sexy new Cyber Enda decided to clear the party’s internet portal of its usual Fine Gael propaganda fare and risk throwing it open to “real people” by asking voters: What’s wrong with Ireland and how can it be fixed? In a frank and fearless “conversation with the nation”.

One man spoke for most respondents with this considered declaration: “What’s gone wrong? Enda Kenny not being in Government, that’s what’s gone wrong.”

And Eoin from Carlow really put his finger on the pulse of what has led the country to this sorry state of affairs when he fumed: “Stop letting the Irish Examiner /Times /RTÉ bully FG — they are giving a distorted image of Enda Kenny.”

And on and on it goes, as the strangely almost entirely pro-Enda, messages flash across the screen at a dizzying speed that makes it impossible to read them at first glance — but don’t worry the most fawning ones are usually repeated regularly.

The whole thing is eerily reminiscent of that brilliant brain-washing scene from Hollywood’s best attempt at the political conspiracy genre, The Parallax View, where our beleaguered hero is drugged and strapped into a seat facing a big screen so he can be bombarded with constant, flash-frame pro-American imagery to try and alter his perception of reality.

Is Enda really this needy? When he kept talking about creating a new Republic, we didn’t realise the one he had in mind was the Workers’ Democratic Republic of North Korea and its all embracing cult of personality.

But just to make it not look like a complete snow job, the occasional Enda-bashing slips in — but even these offer some support: “Enda, nice ideas, but I do not believe you — climb this mountain first!” and “Enda is not a charismatic leader — he’s a worker and that’s what the country needs.”

But the overwhelming amount of traffic consists of “FF have plagued this country since 1930”, “This country is built on FF lies”, and, “Vote No 1 for Honest Enda and Co”. The latter from Eamon in Galway — presumably not a certain Eamon Gilmore in Galway though.

Like all such web forums it has its fair share of weirdos: “It was our loss of spirituality that caused the recession,” notes Gavin from Tuam — so it wasn’t the greedy, internal contradictions of unregulated sub-prime casino capitalism then?

And the site is targeted by special interest groups — a surprisingly high number of posts demanding full same- sex marriage equality, rather than civil partnership pop up. One such message notes that FG “doesn’t have the ‘nads’” to bring in such legislation. And given the trouble then justice spokesman Charlie Flanagan had to go to in order to slap down the party’s homophobes who threatened a rebellion when the Civil Partnership Bill was going through the Dáil last summer, I wouldn’t expect to see the said “Blueshirt ‘nads’” on display anytime in the next FG-led government.

So, what is Enda really up to with all this shifty cyber space stuff?

A misplaced attempt to appear ‘down’ with the web generation and a way of trying to project his image in a controlled and calculated manner where the usually communications- clumsy Kenny can’t rub voters up the wrong way.

It’s an old political strategy given a new 2.0 twist by the website. After losing three straight elections and being dragged down by a leader perceived by voters to lack gravitas, the then main British opposition party launched the “Labour Listens” campaign in 1988 to try and prove it cared about what voters thought. Labour may have been all ears, but the voters found the initiative empty and didn’t want to speak to it, and despite pre-election forecasts of an easy victory, Neil Kinnock lost yet another election to the Tories in 1992.

FG has lost three straight elections and has been led for nine years by a leader perceived as lacking gravitas as it faces into what should be an easy election win this March.

Unlike Kinnock, Enda has the massive political advantage of Fianna Fáil smashing apart its own previous reputation for economic competence in the chaotic mishandling of the IMF bailout fiasco. And while Fine Gael has re-established a firm, consistent lead in the polls, it is still barely above the joint FG/PD centre-right 31% vote recorded in 2007 — despite the subsequent economic collapse.

The Fine Gael web affair is also rather amateur in its execution. These things are primarily intended as a tool to harvest the email addresses of would-be supporters, but doing it so close to an election shows a slovenliness.

Also, taking down the rest of the website to showcase the forum is just obtuse as those brought to the domain by the gimmick are given no information on FG policies or candidates.

Hillary Clinton launched a strangely similar looking web initiative in her doomed presidential bid and it backfired badly against her, highlighting all the things that put people off her most — the coldness, the fakery, the cynical calculation. And it was blown away by Barack Obama’s genuinely ground-breaking and organic Hope internet campaign.

Enda has even borrowed Hillary’s line about wanting to “start a national conversation” — though he does it from a supposedly groovy coffee shop with a latte by his side.

But the FG “conversation” is no such thing, its just a vacuous piece of political vanity masquerading as something new and urgent.

Handlers have been keeping Kenny out of the limelight for the past month — and is it any coincidence his party’s ratings have shot up in that period?

But they can’t lock him up for the election campaign and why shouldn’t Enda be Enda — warts and all? He handled a potentially dangerous question about how to deal with the X Case abortion issue with surprising deftness and skill when let loose in public again last Thursday.

Enda should stop posing with the coffee and just wake up and smell it. The country doesn’t think you’re great Enda but it does think you’re the least worst thing on offer.

And, no matter what your vanity portal tells you, that’s an achievement in itself and the best you can hope for.

Picture: Video address by Enda Kenny, shot in a coffee shop, which appears on the Fine Gael website.