Would you vote for Bertie Ahern in a presidential election:

– Definitely not: 51%
– Probably not (depending on candidates): 14%
– Probably would (depending on candidates): 13%
– Definitely would: 7%
– Don’t know: 15%

“The youngest voters were most likely to have no opinion – 41 per cent of the 18-24 year-old bracket said they had no opinion, while a further 25 per cent of 25-34 year-olds had no opinion”

Have a great weekend

https://www.printfriendly.com/p/g/vMJ7RJ

35 comments

  1. Bertie isn’t going to run for president. Fianna Fáil are allowing him back and letting him go on his little shows and so on because the alternative is allowing Gerry Adams to dominate the 25 anniversary of the GFA. They’d rather have Bertie in there than cede that ground.

    That doesn’t mean Fianna Fáil want him to run for the Áras. It would be a year or less out from a general election and at the same time as the locals, and it would be a fucking bloodbath. Bertie will have nowhere to hide, not just from the Mahon Tribunal stuff, but also from the larger criticisms of his time in government and how it ended.

    It’s easy to feel happy about Bertie in a context where nobody is really out challenging him. He’s an elder statesman doing a victory lap on the GFA and it’s not really in anyone’s interests to start biting at him in any serious way.

    If he runs for office then he’ll be absolutely dogged with sharp criticism and every bad decision, every corrupt action, every life ruined, will be brought front and centre constantly. He would be able to do nothing other than try to explain it all away. That’s not a winning recipe for a presidential run.

    He won’t get the nomination, unless FF have actually completely lost any of the electoral smarts they used to have. Bertie would be the second worst person they could run, after Brian Cowen. Literally anyone else is better, even in a party as denuded of talent as Fianna Fáil. But even if Barry Andrews doesn’t inspire anyone he won’t remind everyone, before and during an election, of why they fled Fianna Fáil in 2011.

    It’s the same reason that Sinn Féin won’t run Gerry Adams. Insofar as a presidential election is a branding exercise for your party you don’t run some lad who reminds everyone of the worst thing about your party. It’d be like the Church replacing every statue of the Virgin Mary with a statue of a priest folding a child while the bishop looks on lovingly.

    If Fianna Fáil are smart they run someone totally disconnected from politics. Some charity person or sportsperson or academic – similar profile to McAleese. Maybe they could convince Brian Cody or Miriam O’Callaghan – that’s their best shot.

  2. How do they conduct these polls? If it’s online, that’s not really asking the people who would likely vote for him. It’s the older generation who still say he was “a great politician” that will vote for him.

    Or do they use some other method to ask people?

  5. I am somewhat bemused by how easy a time he is getting in the media. Newstalk have a featured podcast series with him! Every time he shows up anywhere that “go kill themselves” interview should be playing on a loop. He’s an absolute cretin and should be exiled to some penal colony and leave the rest of us to forget his slimy visage.

  6. Bertie doesn’t like to lose. That’s why he won’t run. You can be sure Martin has a non-political candidate ready to be wheeled out in the event that Mickey D drops dead from old age.

    I’ll bet you Bertie has a book on the way for the 2023 Christmas market and this is all about boosting the sales of that between now and then

  8. Shouldn’t be allowed in door of any local pub never mind the aras, delivered some positives (gfa being biggest) but unapologetic poster boy for political corruption

  9. I would definitely not I don’t have much respect for the man if I’m being completely honest and I’m sure a lot of people would agree with me but lads what do we think of Tommy tiernan?

  12. I would vote for him to be exiled and stripped of his pension. Any man who survived for so long as minister for finance without a bank account will manage without it.

  13. Wait until he gets his Doctorate in a couple of weeks for his work on the troubles and everyone forgets the brown envelopes again. Next step Doctorate then President.

  14. I hate Bertie but I think the IT are putting a certain amount of spin on these numbers.

    Considering how it ended, if I was him and FF I’d be fairly pleased with the cumulative would, might and don’t know demos, how much people associate him with the peace process, and the large amount of the young who seem unaware of him.

    He’d never walk a presidential election but based on that poll, you could easily see him getting between 15% and 25% on good day which in a competitive field (containing other big hitters like some of Enda, Gerry, Mairead, Finlay, Miriam etc) could be enough.

  17. I’m kinda shocked by the younger bracket having no opinion, I’m 24 and grew up with Bertie on the news. Granted, I was probably a bit odd watching the news as a kid at the time but it was obviously not good press, even then there was plenty of pretty damning sentiments echoed by my folks and other adults talking about him back then.

  19. Pretty much no politician in the country would have a majority of people willing to vote for them. We don’t use first past the post voting though, so you don’t need a majority.

  26. 7% of the people who took this poll need to be dealt with and a further 13% need to be sat down and had a serious talk with.

  29. FF floating an almost literal criminal saved only by his own greasiness

    All slobbering with shock that we dont want the cunt and wouldn’t trust him not to feck a piece out of a childs jigsaw

  31. I always thought that the whole Father Ted joke of money resting in his account came from Bertie Ahern inspiration.

  33. I wouldn’t have that chancer back in political circles For many reasons,

    He and his government brought the biggest crisis to our economy that we have ever gone through in our lifetime. They really fucked Everything up in this country. Links for their down fail are everywhere

  35. The most decent thing Martin McGuinness ever did in his wretched life was shank the Fianna Fáil candidate for president on his way out. If Bertie runs, hopefully some Mé Féiner will kamikaze the grubbing little arseling out of the race.

Leave a Reply