KEY POINTS:
No sooner did post-election peace break out than hostilities resumed. For a couple of days there was a warm, huggy feeling. Helen Clark and John Key were talking fondly of each other's abilities, Act and United rushed like blushing brides to the National wing in Parliament, and the Maori Party coyly fluttered its eyelashes on its hot dates with Key.
Then the Labour leadership changed. Phil Goff started sniping at the incoming Nats and fired a salvo at the Maori Party for flirting with the Tories.
Michael Cullen nastily let slip the gloom-laden Treasury re-forecast, raining on his successor Bill English's parade.
I know Goff wants to hit the ground running as Opposition leader but, for God's sake, National isn't even sworn into office yet.
This is the all-too-brief honeymoon period for any new government and it is impossible for Labour to gain any traction with voters who have just rejected them.
Labour simply look like whingeing bad losers, churlish and petty.
Goff had it half right when he came in bravely announcing: "We will return in 2011", promptly admitting the party had made errors which he would work to correct so it could reconnect with voters.
The new line-up of Goff, Annette King and David Cunliffe gave the feeling Labour was already being refreshed. When Engineering, Printing and Manufacturing Union boss Andrew Little quickly raised his hand for party president Mike Williams' job it added to the feeling of positive changes in Labour.
The subsequent dummy spitting by Labour took the shine off that.
Hang on. The next election is three years away. So why does it matter if Labour got off to a false start? The answer is that Phil Goff only has one crack at winning and has just over 1000 days to do it.
The Labour left needs time to build up its muscle to take over the party. As president of the party, Little can design it to suit the left and have stronger input into policy and candidate selection next time round.
By retaining his job as national secretary of the EPMU he holds on to the strong power base of a huge and wealthy union. Little told me last week that it is still his intention to enter Parliament in 2011, which means he would be in a perfect position, with someone from the left, such as Maryann Street, to assume control of the parliamentary party should Goff lose.
If all this seems a bit Machiavellian, it is. That doesn't mean it's not the left's strategy.
While most of us find it hard planning what to have for dinner, the left has always taken a strategic and extreme long-term view.
It believes it's a part of the inexorable tide of history and it's willing to set an objective that might be decades away.
Its plan could come to fruition earlier if Goff and Labour plunge too low in the polls, precipitating a caucus coup.
This is why every day counts for Goff and King. They have to get it right from the beginning.
There is no point in telling voters they made a mistake. Labour needs to look constructive and a little contrite while waiting out the honeymoon period. When National makes its first big mistake, and sooner or later it will, Labour can pounce. So far John Key has yet to put a foot wrong. He has put together a government quickly and inclusively.
He even reached out to the implacably hostile public service union, the PSA, and is considering the plight of low-income earners' problems with KiwiSaver.
Later this week he will take the world stage at Apec and in London, further enhancing his position as Prime Minister.
The true test will be how he handles his programme for the first 100 days of government.
During this period he and Bill English have to construct a solid layer of insulation around the economy and the living standards of voters to withstand the icy blast of the international crash.
He and English will have to deliver quickly on their election promises, stimulate growth and restrain inflation without borrowing too heavily.
If they fail or lose focus on what they are doing, the Opposition is free to attack and perhaps then utter a smug "I told you so" to the electorate.
National cannot, as Labour did in its last two terms, get bogged down in petty politics and the process of governing and lose sight of what it set out to do.
The best advice I can offer the new Government is to ignore the alligators and get on with draining the swamp.
