Ahem, was that a little white lie, Herr Doktor?
DoctorJosephMuscat went to Gozo to speak to Labour delegates there (if the mountain won’t come to Mohammed….). He told them what a good and unifying leader he will make, and that ‘an opinion survey’ puts him as the favourite among everyone – except those who voted for the Nationalist Party. Here’s the relevant bit from The Times report:
Referring to an opinion survey, he welcomed the fact that he was shown as being the preferred candidate among Labourites, floating votes, those who had voted for the small parties and those who had not voted at all, as well as young people, saying it appeared his message was getting through.
Would this survey have been carried out and interpreted by the same people who produced Labour’s surveys in the run-up to the election, the ones that told them they would win by 20,000 votes? I ask because all the surveys I have seen (they were published) put George Abela as the favourite among floating voters, those who voted for the small parties, and those who didn’t vote at all – the very people, in fact, that the Labour Party needs to get into government.
Maybe DoctorJosephMuscat, like DoctorAlfredSant before him, is taking it for granted that the Labour delegates are his intellectual inferiors and that they don’t read newspapers. Maybe it’s a safe assumption to make, but it’s condescending to be so blatant about it.
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Why does not JM read the survey published by his former boss that shows as follows:
GA JM
Floating Voters 44% (45%) 24% (22%)
Refuse to say who
they normally vote for 34% (23%) 29% (43%)
Source: The Malta Independent May 16th – Survet of Alfred Mifsud May 8th ( figures in bracjets relate to end- March 08 survey.)
There is no doubt that among floating and uncommitted voter GA is preferred outright both as an MLP leader and as the one most likely to beat Gonzi come next elections.
JM can do better that put the lighlight on one statistical quirk in Xarbank survey that seems to suit his purposes and ignore everything else. The boy is very subjective which is no good augur for good leadership. A good leader has to interpret research and events objectively.
His article in the times earlier this week also had couple of factual inaccuracies/omissions which conveniently lent weight to his argument.
So much for a breath of fresh air. Same old same old. Couldn’t even be bothered to quote the facts correctly and spin them in such a way as to back his point.
Joseph is a good boy but needs to work a little harder and smirk less in class.
You have only to go to http://www.xarabank.com and find the survey produced in last Friday’s edition of Xarabank to find out that Joseph Muscat is now (survey conducted last week)the favourite candidate for MLP leadership among those declared as Floaters, among those who voted AD or AN, among those who did not vote and among those who declared that had voted Labour in the last election. The only category who prefer George Abela are declare nationalist voters! Young people between the ages of 16 and 35 also prefer Joseph Muscat as MLP Leader.
[Moderator – James Tanti, you’re not telling half the story. From the survey:
When it comes to self-described ‘floating voters’, Joseph Muscat Muscat’s advantage over George Abela is of less than 4%. But George Abela is preferred by 20% more PN voters than Joseph Muscat, and 6% more voters claiming to have ‘no political affiliation’.
And isn’t 13% of the vote from the top socio-economic class very worrying for a champagne socialist like Joseph Muscat? Well, now we have our answer to the question of which market Joseph Muscat’s sugardaddy Schultz stunt worked best on, from the survey’s own definition of socio-economic class DE: ‘semi-skilled, unskilled, Labourers, casual workers and persons whose income is provided by the State.’]
It also is a bit rich, considering JM’s attempted spin, for him to declare himself in favour of truth over fiction, truth over spin, and truth over doubt. In in doing so, he pretentiously presumes some name-dropping: Wittgenstein, Timothy Radcliff OP, and (my American favorite) Mark Twain:
http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20080602/opinion/the-twain-maxim
I suppose, accordingly, “truth” is absent in the “right-wing Press,” as the attack also is continuing to be made by Gavin Gulia in Today’s Malta Independent. Then MLCP seems to feel that the public opinion is being manipulated by the PN to influence what is “their” decision. The truth about GA is pretty obvious among professionals and the common wisdom. My input, like some others, has been as a professional, not as a PN supporter. Have these people not realized how “Left” the PN has come [it can go further], but how “Right-wing” authoratarian and facist the MLP are revealing themselves to be?
The evidence suggests that there are quite many defenses going up around the uncrowned leader.
He also promises “big changes”. Don’t they get it yet? Jeez…!!!
These Labour people keep insisting that they won’t enter into a pairing agreement with the government. You know what?
NOW THEY NEED THE GOVERNMENT SIDE TO SUPPORT THE MOTION TO CO-OPT JOSEPH MUSCAT INTO PARLIAMENT!
Imagine what would happen if the government insists that usual practice should be followed and someone from the same electoral division of the MP who resigned his/her seat is to be coopted. All hell would break loose.
And these people keep short-sightedly saying no to a pairing agreement. Rich, to say the least!