Learn the obvious lessons: Candidate selection is all-defining

It was obvious in Wexford last week, when Fine Gael displayed Clinton-grade hubris.

Before the month is out, more intimate versions of the Buckingham Palace world leaders’ back-slapping and guffawing that so offended the thin-skinned US president, Donald Trump, will play out across the country.

Cabals will gather at office drinks parties and gleefully eviscerate colleagues. On the home front, siblings will whisper at the family Christmas dinner that Uncle Jim or Aunt Bridie has gone beyond the beyond and would want to cut back on the sluicing.