BERTIE GOES BARNSTORMING

If the election were to be decided solely by the impact of the respective party leaders - which it won't Fianna Fail would stand…

If the election were to be decided solely by the impact of the respective party leaders - which it won't Fianna Fail would stand well ahead with Bertie Ahern's barnstorming performance on the hustings. Handshake for handshake and photo-opportunity for photo-opportunity he is stacking up goodwill and votes almost everywhere he goes.

Gone is the half-hunted look of a year ago, the hesitant and uncertain delivery, the sense of a man weighed down with the burden of leadership. This Bertie Ahern is confident, energetic and coherent. His responses are measured and reasoned. He is a committed listener. And his personality, as the French might say, is universally sympathique.

There are weak points. The ineradicable Dublin twang still grates with some rural folk. And the odd grammatical solecism causes even his own admirers to wince. But for many these are almost endearing traits, like Jack Lynch's Cork lilt or Garret FitzGerald's gurgling vowels, speeding over the larynx but never fast enough to keep up with the intellect.

The Taoiseach does not exude the same sense of relishing the canvass. He tends to look downright uncomfortable in situations where Bertie Ahern is in his element. And John Bruton carries the handicap-weighting of office. The country's fortunate economic circumstances notwithstanding, he is accountable for every mishap and ill from the hepatitis scandal to the crime wave. Bertie Ahern, by contrast, is unburdened by any such associations. He is the fresh alternative, plain-speaking, reasonable, persuasive.

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It is not all imagery. Fianna Fail's range of policies has been generally thought through and in most cases well researched. There is a clarity about the proposals on the economy and on taxation, reflecting good staff work and organisation. But it is not universal. Policy on the North is opportunistic. Policy on criminal justice is superficial and has hardly been developed beyond seizing on the concept of zero tolerance. On the positive side there is a clear understanding and acceptance of the route to economic and monetary union.

But Fianna Fail's greatest indebtedness to its leader is that he has sloughed off the taint of suspicion which has been its nemesis for so long. Whatever happened between Charles Haughey and Ben Dunne or between Albert Reynolds and Larry Goodman, Bertie Ahern has succeeded, in the public's mind, in breaking with the past. Time, of course, may tell just how complete that break has been.

Additionally, to Fianna Fail's electoral benefit, the Rainbow leaders are under some clouds of doubt. The great majority of poll respondents reject John Bruton's explanation of the contradictory evidence he tendered to two sworn inquiries. Dick Spring's volte face on his last set of pre-election positions has left him with a permanent credibility gap. And Proinsias de Rossa failed to persuade a jury he had been libelled in his recent case against the Sunday Independent.

It is a happy, not to say an unfamiliar, condition in which Fianna Fail finds itself with 10 days to go to polling. But the outcome of the election will not be decided solely by public perception of the leaders. Nor should it be. The fundamental issue is stability to identify the best possible combination of parties to consolidate and build upon Ireland's current prosperity and to secure the future for our children. It requires much more than good humour and a handshake.