Well she was beginning to choke on the stardust but going into last night's TVNZ debate there was little glitter for Jacinda Ardern who'd just learned Labour was trailing National by nine percent.
So it was just plain hard slog against the man who came into politics when she was at primary school.
Bill English, otherwise known as the Dipton drawler, is at home down on the farm, although he's become pretty adept in a television studio which is where, Ardern with her communications degree, cut her teeth.
Both have been playing to their constituencies over the past week, him to farmers about Labour's nasty water tax and her to universities where the television cameras capture her being mobbed with her free education offer.
But in last night's round table chat in the television studio, this time without the audience, the gloves almost came off with both landing jabs rather than haymakers.