Sunday, August 26, 2007

Old and dirty money in Hoeyre

So, Per Ditlev(P Diddy?)-Simonsen resigned as mayor in Oslo, after a couple of days deliberation. Could he really have done anything different, except coming to the conclusion sooner?

Anyway, most people agrees that this means a huge blow for Høyre in the upcoming election. Even if P Diddy wasn't up for election; he was finishing his term in a couple of weeks anyway.

However, it will be more interesting to see if this have an impact on the election in the rest of the country. Even if local politics usually differs quite a bit form the national. Parties in opposition in Stortinget can work together in both the smaller and larger cities. So, has P Diddy ruined the election for Høyre across the country? My guess is that Oslo are screwed, and probably the other large cities. But I believe that Høyre can still do a good election in the smaller communities, where the politicians might be closer to the voters. I mean if Djupedal isn't able to sink SV, I think Høyre can ride off the storm after P Diddy.

6 comments:

Wilhelm said...

I don't see why he waited for as long as he did. It's not as if he could have gotten away with it, and the stalling didn't exactly do anything to ease the media exposure he was sure to get anyways.

My feeling is that despite this being a local election, all the campaigning is done by national-level politicians, so odds are that Høyre is screwed. Besides this fiasco, the party has done a great job of stepping down as the number one contender and taken the role of the suit-wearing, boring and unimaginative people you'd expect them to be from the current leadership.

Fremskrittspartiet have screwed up even more in local politics, but they've gotten media exposure going for the ever since pimp-slapping Høyre, so I don't think the occasional outburst by local yokels hurts their case much. Unfortunately, every polling result I've seen is based on the performance of national politicians, and if you'd listened to some of the call-ins on shows like Tabloid, you'd hear people say stuff like "it's about time we got a new government", or "leave the red-green coalition alone".

Utterly depressing

Anders said...

I think that anybody who ever has called in to Tabloid should be banned from voting.

However, in Fauske, the local Høyre group has decleared that they do not want the national politicians to campain in the county. And according to the polls, they have a good chance to defeat Ap which currently holds the county border. So by focusing on local issus, I think Høyre have a chance in the smaller cities. The politics in the larger cities are much more woven into national politics, so here Høyre are fuck**, oh sorry, f**ked.

Guess what I'm saying is: Get used to the fact that your garbage ls only collected each forth-night, W.

Wilhelm said...

You've definitely got a point there. Still; the best one I've ever heard about comes from the US, where the "undecided" on any issue in a radio show comes from actual caller data. So in other words, for any issue, the "undecideds" are actually people who call in to say "Yeah; I've no opinion on this subject - it could go either way for all I care".

Wilhelm said...

..and I know I'm screwed as far as the upcoming election. I should start positioning myself for a "team-leader" position on the rice field

Anders said...

Yes, even on Tabloid, I've heard callers say "they are both right"! Yeah, that'll make some banner in a protest march...

I would advise you to brush up on your negro spirituals. Just swap any reference to cotton with rice, and you'll be the leader of the gang!

Wilhelm said...

"Why can't everybody get along" does not rule as a slogan.

Picketing and truth also do not mix well; "there's almost never an occasion in which there are only two sides, so both arguments are likely flawed" would make for a long, snoozefest of a banner