KEY POINTS:
Eyebrows may be raised at the scale of the study we publish today of a politician, John Key.
The paper's next section is the first half of a veritable biography, the second part will run next weekend. Why have we expended so much time and effort - three senior writers have interviewed and researched for five months - on a contender at the coming election?
As the election draws closer the trend in the polls, unusually, has become more pronounced, yet we know relatively little about the man who seems likely to be Prime Minister within three or four months.
Unlike Helen Clark, Bill English or Jim Bolger, he has not been long in Parliament and unlike a Don Brash or a David Lange he was unknown in public life before he entered politics.
He had what seems to have been a highly successful financial career, mostly overseas, and we knew little about that, too.
We aimed to produce a reliable account before his party might be tempted to rush out a richly sanitised biography or a detractor did a hatchet job.
Our writers, Eugene Bingham, Paula Oliver and Carroll du Chateau, set out with no preconceptions and no brief except to find out all they could of his background, upbringing, attitudes and activities. The result is a record that in some of its detail might surprise even the subject himself.
Today we bring their investigation of the man and what formed him; next weekend they examine what he believes, what kind of politician he is and what might characterise his leadership if it eventuates.
The exercise is taking nothing for granted. An election and post-ballot negotiations still present hurdles he must clear. It is important to assess him now, not when it is too late.
