Cactus Kate calls it like she sees it, in a very good post on the Business Roundtable’s PR problems.
The way Kate sees it, the entire centre right suffers from a major perception problem.
Definitely worth a read. Check it out here.
Not one of the “general population” that I have ever canvassed in two election campaigns has had enough understanding of the policies of each party in order to give that as the reason for voting for a particular political party. When you strip away all the rhetoric from the general population you get the same answers on a consistent basis, the personality in politics is more important than the policy. True Believers lose sight of this because a true believer believes that policy and good basics are the keys to winning campaigns.
It’s all about being popular enough for people to like you enough to trust you enough to vote for you without even knowing all your policies. That’s what gaining power in politics comes down to. Winston Peters is the Master.
John A. Lee said that people don’t vote for policies, they vote for people who they think will have the strength to implement their policies (or something like that).