Todd Muller needs to surprise New Zealand voters. Photo / Mark Mitchell
Todd Muller needs to surprise New Zealand voters. Photo / Mark Mitchell
COMMENT:
The hype from some of the media pre-publish on the Judith Collins memoir Pull No Punches is unwarranted.
It's a good, entertaining, solid read about a largely successful and ongoing political career, not the daggers-at-dawn, name-dropping scandal page-turner some had made it out to be.
What Collins has isa couple of exceedingly valuable and yet rare qualities: Namely, determination and self-confidence.
Being comfortable in your own skin comes with time, experience and success, whatever you personally measure that to be.
When it's all you have, you're desperate, and when you're desperate you look desperate.
Todd Muller doesn't quite look desperate, but up until recently he's looked uncertain, he's looked like he got the job before he had worked out what he was going to do with it, if he ever did get it.
What Judith Collins has is a couple of exceedingly valuable and yet rare qualities - namely determination and self-confidence. Photo / Mark Mitchell
There is no need to rehash those cumbersome, awkward early days, but even the most ardent National supporter must have held their breath for a while there wondering what the hell was unfolding, and how they ever deserved any of this.
Time is a magic healer though, and a decent poll or two, and a Government being shown up for its great Achilles heel - ie the inability to actually do stuff, whether it be light rail or the borders - rectifies a lot of doubts, headlines, and negative attention.
So as we sit here today, Todd Muller still has a ways to go, but he and his party are in the race for September and anyone who says they're not is doing so for political purposes and their own personal expectations, not reality.
If I could offer Todd some advice, it would be simple.
Enjoy yourself. Be yourself.
It's easier said than done, but if you can do it, there is no holding you back.
Key did it, Judith does it. Authenticity is your greatest gift.
People can see, smell and taste authenticity.
They will forgive you a lot if they know who you are, believe who you are, and in buying into that, they see you as one of them.
That's why John Key could be worth $50 million and you never really remembered it, because that wasn't who he was. It was a tangible outworking of who he was, but it wasn't the bit you thought about.
Judith Collins is loved and hated, and that's the best thing you can ever hope to be, in a world full of blancmange ... whether politics, media or business, we are surrounded by the grey, the anxious, the politically correct, the second guessers, the committee sitters ... they're the ones clinging on for dear life, worried about their rep, their future, their promotion, upsetting someone, not being part of the zeitgeist.
John Key, Todd Muller and Simon Bridges in 2014. Photo / Andrew Warner
Todd won't win this September by managing his way to victory.
He won't win by workshopping one-liners, listening to spin doctors or doing media training.
All that crap does is fill your head with doubt and second thoughts. All it does is mess with who you are, and people can sniff out that falseness from a mile away.
Love or hate Judith, no one doubts who she is, no one doubts she believes what she says, and no one doubts she backs herself every single time - she is genuine.
For trainspotters, Bill English came into his own three years ago as well.
Left by Key to fill shoes so big you felt sorry for him, he actually came to life, I surmised at the time, because he had nothing to lose, so he relaxed, you saw the real Bill.
No, he wasn't a Key or a Lange, but he was genuine and you might remember on the night he actually won the election.
I don't know who Todd is. Oh, he's told a few stories about Te Puna and school, but that's the stuff of the spin doctors. Everyone went to school and comes from somewhere. That's not a reason to vote for you.
Throw caution to the wind, say something mad, be unpredictable, take no prisoners, kick some arse, give people hope and a reason.
