KEY POINTS:
Was Aroha Ireland taken for a political ride by John Key as he ferried the 12-year-old to Waitangi in his chauffeur-driven Crown limousine?
That question was posed by Mark Sainsbury on Monday during a One News promo for that night's Close-Up.
The programme subsequently had Sainsbury crossing to Waitangi to interview Key and Aroha, while also chatting to her mother and younger brother in his Auckland studio.
However, things became fairly sentimental fairly rapidly as it became obvious the family regarded Key's gesture as completely genuine and something very special. The question of whether Key had exploited Aroha got lost in the schmaltz.
Key insists his offer to take her to Waitangi was spontaneous.
What is not in question is that the media coverage of Aroha's big day was of massive assistance to Key's relentless efforts to brand himself as a strong, yet collaborative prime minister-in-waiting and a pragmatic, yet decisive one to boot.
In this case, Key was marketing himself as someone who can cross ethnic and socio-economic divides.
You cannot buy the kind of publicity National's new leader is getting. Labour is seething.
Not surprisingly, Key's dream run with the media was raised when Labour's caucus discussed political strategy on Wednesday ahead of the resumption of Parliament next week.
Some MPs blamed the media for not asking Key the "hard questions".
Wiser counsel suggested Labour just ride things out, rather than attack the media.
If Key was still on a roll in a month's time then it might be time to start worrying.
Most voters would have regarded Key as pretty much a blank canvas when he took over as leader last November. They knew little about him and even less about what he believed in. That has been to his advantage. It has allowed him to paint the kind of self-portrait that will go down well with the electorate before his opponents can produce a more ugly version.
There are constraints. Key is not a charismatic politician. Charisma cannot be generated artificially. But what he lacks in charisma, he makes up for in charm.
His agility in being charming and disarming - displayed during his confrontation with the so-called "underclass" of McGehan Close - is one of his strengths.
He is running what amounts to a nationwide charm offensive to transform himself from unknown quantity into trusted and credible politician.
The concentration on image was evident in Key donning a T-shirt for his informal walkabout in Waitangi.
This was done to avoid being stereotyped by younger voters as just another stuffy, grey-suited politician.
The image-building is being driven partly by time factors - there are at most 20 months left until election day. However, Key needs a unique and definitive brand because Helen Clark has one of the strongest.
The Prime Minister has deliberately ignored Key's efforts to drag her into arguments. If he cannot get her to engage with him, Key must build his leadership strengths to the point where voters acknowledge they are on levels attained by Clark.
Judging from the latest 3 News TNS poll, he is already making progress. While Clark comfortably heads off Key when it comes to being a capable leader, being good in a crisis and having sound judgment, Clark is seen as more inflexible, narrow-minded and out of touch with ordinary people.
If the positive and negative scores of the leaders are averaged and then subtracted, Clark comes out with a rating of plus 28.4. Key rates lower at 22.5.
But the good news for National is that he is way up on the minus 6.7 per cent registered by Don Brash in the previous 3 News poll when he was still leader.
The bad news for Labour is that the 3 News poll was conducted in the week before Key's state of the nation speech. Key will surely get some lift out of that speech and the continued focus on its claim of a burgeoning "underclass".
The selling of Key continued through National's caucus retreat in Gisborne, his visit to McGehan Close, his participation in the national day commemorations at Waitangi and this week's argy-bargy over his food-for-hungry school kids initiative.
He has set a cracking pace. He has been setting the agenda on an almost daily basis. He has no intention of easing back.
He will go after Clark when Parliament resumes next week, accusing her of being out of touch and lacking accountability for the behaviour of Phillip Field and the failings of the Corrections Department.
Clark's riposte will be "substance not slogans". She will emphasise that there are no magic bullets when it comes to repairing the social fabric. That is a shift on Labour's previous stance that the underclass is diminishing as a result of Labour policies.
The intention is to stop the argument about the underclass getting fresh legs, while challenging Key to start talking serious policy.
He knows he is vulnerable on the "style over substance" charge. That is why he rolled out his food-for-schools initiative to prove he is solution- focused and not just after a cheap headline.
The same approach will apply to his next major speech which will likely focus on education standards which, like the underclass, is another area where Labour is vulnerable to middle class angst.
After Brash, Labour is having to reacquaint itself with a style more typical of a National Party leader, one which is far more combative, one which stays "on message" and one which gets the total message across in every sound-bite.
Labour has been struggling to keep up with Key. By the time Labour has got to grips with something he has said or done, Key has moved on to something else. However, Labour is confidently punting that soon enough the "something else" will be a political banana-skin.
In the meantime, Labour is gently reminding the media it should be asking the hard questions, for example, whether Key resiles from market rents for state houses.
On Thursday, 3 News put that question to Key. He would not answer it, instead ducking for cover by saying National had yet to discuss housing policy. It was a reminder to Key that playing to the media can be a double-edged sword, especially when he is willing to take the kind of risks he has been taking.
However, risk is no stranger to the former currency trader.
Had he not gone to McGehan Close, he would not have run into Aroha.
It is all about creating media opportunities that keep Key in front of the nation.
It is all about visibility.
