Gaybo seems to lack fire in the belly

LET’S get one thing straight: to win the presidential election, a candidate is going to have to want it.

And Gay Byrne doesn’t sound like a man who wants it badly enough.

On the surface, Byrne would make an excellent candidate. He is a broadcasting institution, with a national audience at his fingertips, a sizeable portion of whom hold him dear to their hearts. Last week, he comfortably topped a poll of 4FM listeners when they were asked about their preferred presidential candidate. Yesterday, he topped a Sunday Independent/Quantum Research poll of 500 people on the same issue. It put him at 34%, 12 points clear of his nearest rival, Labour’s Michael D Higgins.

But it’s one thing topping a phone poll in August when politics is in summer holiday mode and quite another winning a presidential contest in October after a bitter and exhausting battle against well-funded rival campaigns.

To win any national election, a candidate has to be prepared for the hardest of slogs and tell him or herself that no sacrifice is too great.

Gay Byrne does not sound like a man who is prepared for that kind of effort.

Here’s what he said when speaking to his namesake, Claire Byrne, in an interview about the issue on RTÉ Radio over the weekend:

“At my time of life, do I need to get in a bus and travel the roads of Ireland asking people to vote for me? At my time of life, do I need to be auditioned by county councillors to know whether I’m fit or not to be president? I don’t think so. I would rather be sitting right where you are now with my little microphone open speaking to the people of Ireland.”

Byrne was talking not about the election campaign itself, but the process involved in obtaining a nomination in the first place.

To get on the ballot paper, a candidate needs to be nominated by at least 20 members of the Oireachtas (TDs and/or senators) or at least four city and/or county councils.

David Norris knew last week that he no longer had a chance of obtaining either, which is why he withdrew from the race.

But Norris had at least made efforts on both fronts. Byrne is saying he wouldn’t be prepared to go begging for votes, and would instead need to be offered a nomination were he to be a candidate — in other words, a political party or grouping would have to come to him with 20 Oireachtas members in the bag.

That is totally understandable — Byrne didn’t ask or seek to be a candidate; he was sounded out. And if you’re going to sound somebody out, you need to come to that person with something to offer.

He’s not a professional politician either, so doesn’t have experience of political bartering, another reason why he is understandably reluctant to traipse around the country seeking the approval of councillors or TDs.

But that reluctance may serve as a flashing light to those in Leinster House considering Byrne as an option.

If he has no desire to do the usual leg work involved in securing a nomination, there is no guarantee he would have the desire to do the leg work involved in a normal presidential campaign.

There might be aspects of the campaign which he — and any normal, sensible person — would consider demeaning, or intrusive, or illogical.

Professional politicians don’t think that way. They have hard necks built up from years of knocking on doors of people whose reactions are not always favourable.

Gay Mitchell and Michael D Higgins will — within the acceptable political boundaries, of course — be prepared to do whatever it takes to win in October.

So too will Sean Gallagher and Mary Davis, who have already made statements of their intent by securing the support they require from various councils — no mean feat and testament to their desire.

Gay Byrne hasn’t ruled out running — “if somebody can convince me that the mass of the Irish people are clamouring for Gay to be president, I would have to listen to the clamour” — but this suggest a lack of conviction. And that may ultimately deter the likes of Fianna Fáil or the Independents from nominating him.