Of platypi and men

This could have been our Prime Minister.
Nationalist columnists have been speaking damagingly of Joseph Muscat since the day he announced his run for MLP leadership. Their popularity makes them think there are legions of people who agree with everything they say. Well, everybody in the USA listens to what Howard Stern has to say, so there.

Would these columnists have preferred Marie-Louise Coleiro to lead MLP? Most definitely not. They picked on Muscat simply because they knew chances were he was going to win. Why not denigrate the MLP leader before he is even made leader? They are staunch nationalist supporters so such behaviour is to be expected of them.

Did they honestly want George Abela to win? Yes. Then again, come election time, they'd remember he was a prominent member of the General Workers Union during the Mintoff/KMB years and find a way to use it against him.

Elections aren't won solely over charisma, but it is an important factor, and was a deciding factor last March. Is Joseph Muscat more charismatic than Alfred Sant? Yes, so is a platypus. Does Muscat have a greater chance of winning the 2013 elections than Sant? Yes, so does a platypus. Yet Alfred "the guy even labourites now hate" Sant was only 1500 votes shy of winning the elections three months ago. Therefore, it follows that a platypus leading MLP would have won.

Let's face it, PM Gonzi, a dead ringer for F. Murray Abraham (Salieri in Amadeus for the uninitiated), doesn't overflow with charisma. The nationalists didn't come up with the idea of GonziPN because Gonzi is a great leader, but to constantly draw a comparison with Alfred Sant who was a well-known liability to MLP i.e. Gonzi looked good compared to Fredu - who wouldn't? Do people look at Gonzi and see a born leader? He had bad competition on all fronts, and almost lost - surely not a good result for his first time leading the party through general elections.

Now Gonzi's competition got better. Couple that with the fact that Muscat can't look that bad in our eyes for the time being because he's replacing a sub-platypus and the competition gets even stronger just because. Check out Lou Bondi's child-like excitement for having an MLP leader who answers questions posed to him (WOW!) on his show to know what I'm saying. Anyone would look good after Fredu.

Muscat isn't as easy a target for denigration as Sant, which explains the extra effort put in by nationalist columnists. We'll wait and see how it plays out.