Labour gets into the Love Groove with Joseph! Joseph!

5 Comments Comment

1. Edward Clemmer says:

   June 10, 2008 at 4:29 pm

   One unfortunate trait that Joseph seems to share with his predicessor his is belief in “word magic.” Saying the words does not make them true; the leader saying the words does not make them more true. And leadership, while it involves the use of language, rhetoric, and communication skills, is not made by saying, and the others follow, because you are the leader.

   The difference between words and implementation and actions can be as difficult as the difference between night and day. Inspirational leadership can make a difference. But there is nothing in JM that I find the least bit inspiring, or inspired.

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2. Daphne Caruana Galizia says:

   June 10, 2008 at 7:34 pm

   @Well said, Edward – there are far too many naive people around.

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3. Edward Clemmer says:

   June 10, 2008 at 10:22 pm

   I should also point out the fallacy and sheer fantasy of Leo Brincat’s spin, today, to draw the entirely false parallel between JM and Barak Obama, the eventual nominee of the Democratic Party in the US. Obama is a leader and he is inspirational. But the only thing Muscat-Obama share is age, and a generational difference from current leadership (or leadership contenders).

   Obama was an outsider, competing against the party establishment; Muscat was the MLP establishment competing against everyone else, inside and outside the party.

   Obama, as a Democrat, is going to be contesting against a Republican-lead government, by G. W. Bush, with the lowest public presidential ratings in the history of the US, which cuts across both party lines in the disapproval ratings. Muscat, on the other hand, is going to be contesting against a PN-lead government, with greater trust, approval, and accomplishments ratings than anything the MLP is yet to project and sell to a voting public, across both party lines given that 1981 is the last time Labour actually won a legal majority.

   What is worse for the MLP, JM will have to compete against a true leader who inspires, Lawrence Gonzi; but unlike Obama, who has demostrated true accomplishment in the history of his rising star with this time in history, JM’s rising star is rooted in wishful thinking and the aspirations of those who placed him there, two-thirds of the party delegates. Obama was placed where he is by the voting public in primary contests, and a gruelling season of them. JM has an appeal to a portion of the MLP; but he does not have the broader appeal (or capacity) he needs to succeed. Obama has a ripe opportunity to win; JM is yet to create that possibility. No election, however, ever is a walk-over, although the last one could have been for the MLP, for all of the tragic reasons.

   However, yes, there are a lot of naive people around; and they need to be reminded of what capable leadership and responsible political policy are. With all of the consulting JM is doing now that he is the Opposition Leader in waiting, I wonder if he has any idea of what to do on his own. No doubt, the progressive outline for the 2013 general elections are already taking shape over at the PN.

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4. Daphne Caruana Galizia says:

   June 11, 2008 at 12:30 am

   Edward, actually the only election that Labour won in the 32 years since 1976 was that of 1996, which resulted in a 22-month term of government. Labour didn’t get the majority of votes in 1981, but the majority of seats. In the long, long period between the 1950s and 2013, Labour will have won just three elections: 1971, 1976 and 1996. If Joseph Muscat becomes prime minister in 2013, it will be purely by default, yet it will be presented as some kind of heroic achievement. You have to hand it to Labour when it comes to positive thinking for internal matters (and negative thinking for everything else).

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5. Edward Clemmer says:

   June 11, 2008 at 6:57 am

   It seems that along with Dale Carnegie, the MLP believe in “positive thinking.” They also seem to believe in pyramids and crystals. I wonder what they were thinking during Joseph’s “Love-In?” I think there may have been a few moments of terror in about one-third of the MLP delegates. The re-birth of the MLP under JM is stillborn, and many of the non-naive of the MLP must know this. It will be hard to unite the MLP around their loosing proposition; there will be some who may leave; and there may be many who hang on for the disillusioned ride in the hope of salvaging the party. There will be other true believers, like Desmond Zammit Marmara, who will poke fun at “PN sympathizers” for undermining GA’s candidacy. These people don’t recognize objective analysis when it is handed to them on a silver platter. There is a difference between objective and subjective psychological orientations: and the psyche of the MLP seems to be grounded in subjective projections, where now, instead of AS, there is JM, or as you say, AS Mark II.

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