Editorial: 'President' Helen Clark on hustings

Already, and even without a date having been set, this year's election is shaping as a campaign of opposites. The Labour Party, its eyes on a third term, is putting the emphasis on presidential-style campaigning. In contrast, National will stress the strength of its team. With no more than nine weeks to go until polling day, the scenario is starting to be played out, as illustrated by the scrutiny of Labour in today's Weekend Herald, the first of a series on the state of the parties.

Helen Clark has been busy during the hiatus leading up to her Government's final parliamentary session. She has every reason to be. Opinion polls show Labour is still suffering from a Budget backlash. Her response has been to take to the hustings, a place that has not always been a preferred domain. Experience, however, has delivered an expertise and degree of comfort that any novice politician would find hard to match.

This approach has many pluses for a politician whose personal rating remains solid. There are the television moments, radio soundbites and photo opportunities, and the chance to demonstrate that she retains both vision and enthusiasm. And the opportunity to deflect attention from members of the upper tier of her Cabinet, who, almost without exception, have been guilty of gaffes this year. She has striven not only to retrieve some of their fumblings but to sharpen and reframe Labour's message. The Working for Families package has, for example, become a "tax relief" measure as Labour seeks to salve the tax-cut sore delivered by the Budget.

All the while, the Prime Minister has stayed mum on the election date. It now seems certain, however, that it will be September 17, providing almost the longest-possible time to right Labour's ship. It also gives National, and, particularly, its leader, Don Brash, more time to slip up. This is Helen Clark's fourth election campaign as a party leader; it is Dr Brash's first. Even during the current phoney war, Labour is drawing encouragement from his error-prone ways.

Most recently, Dr Brash has picked a needless fight with Grey Power, a group that, whatever its eccentricities, enjoys a measure of public esteem by virtue of the people it represents. Before that, he thought aloud about trimming GST, and then decided quickly, and embarrassingly, that it was out of bounds.

National will try to navigate a way around this frailty by stressing the capabilities of the men and women who would take major portfolios in a National-led government. The likes of Bill English, who has been an impressive education spokesman, John Key, with his experience in world financial markets, and Judith Collins, the social services spokeswoman.

National is also seeking to defuse potential sources of voter unease, sidestepping the nuclear issue and softening its line on the domestic purposes benefit. The underlying message in all this is that the party leader is not a heartless banker born with a silver spoon in his mouth.

Dr Brash's inexperience may yet trip National. But his freshness, and the new faces on his prospective front bench, could also be a big part of a winning formula. Parties rarely win third terms, if only because voters tire of them and their approach. Two innings are usually deemed sufficient for a party to deliver on its initial promise.

This, then, is the challenge facing Helen Clark. She has points in her favour, but even her party's strongest suit, steady economic stewardship, has not handed her pole position. For Labour to win, she will have to be at her presidential best.