OOps. Sorry. Ted actually is one of the sycophantic simps of the Entitled Party. Hypocrites all.

The Liberal Party needs 4 years where they know they are in opposition so they can organize, rethink and plan without having to worry about an election. It was true in 2006 it is true today. Money is part if their problem, organization is a second problem and the last is policy and startegy. What in the world do they want to do, and why should it be them.

It was a real shame they went for the coalition, it interupted and distracted them from a valueable process. Iggy is better to put them through it than Dion….I think…..but they need time and more than just the summer.

I am sure Scott knows it better. But Martin came acrss as thin skinned and Harpers comment highlighted a difference.

But the staffer excuse is about worn out, I agree. But so is asking ministers to resign at the drop of a hat.

As for the article. Yes Iggy is moving along the path he defined earlier when he made the comment that there were positions he woldnt have taken as a politician than as an academic. essentially seeing it, being a politician, as an acting job.

He has time to change but the sooner he starts the better. If his intelllect actually clears customs then he may have to then explain one or two position changes or clarificaions. You never look smart doing that.

But, perhaps what we see now is ultimately as good as it will get. If that is the case, Liberal supporters can at least celebrate that Ignatieff hasn't already attracted the same strongly negative image that Dion acquired.

The fact that Iggy puts more weight in his advisers' opinion than in his own intellect is a measure of his strength as leader. How you see it depends on your generation group: either he's too weak to trust his own opinion or strong enough to admit it when he's wrong.

That's assuming quite a bit. It's still a long way from here to there

I agree with Ted's comment though that the accusation of overpromising is not borne out by facts.

Also, can one really blame Ignatieff for engaging in platitudes? After all, Dion had the guts to offer a serious, thoughtful policy (the Green Shift) that assumed voters were intelligent (and serious about doing something to reduce our consumption of non-renewable fossil fuels). And how was he rewarded for that faith?

Meanwhile Obama, God bless him, engaged largely in a campaign of vague calls for "change we can believe in" and a "new way of doing politics", while carefully avoiding any controversial policy positions, and was heaped with praise.

It seems clear which strategy works.

Carr Centre role would have been just as executorial as pres of the NCC.

Iggy ran his own TV program? What do you mean? He was his own producer?

I'll grant you that being Director of the Carr Institute from 2000-2005 probably included some sort of executive-level responsibilities. Did he manage a staff, or was it more of a symbolic post?

Harper's made a career out of sitting at a desk and yet he's never had a job that wasn't insulated from the market like the rest of us: he's either lived off the government or secretive wealthy National Citizens Coalition donors. The only remotely leadership role was being head of the NCC for a couple of years, a conservative lobbying company.

How many word did Harper copy when he plagiarized Howard?

Ah, but of course, he blamed that one on a staffer too.

(And don't you think there's a bit of Colin Firth in Iggy and a lot of Daniel Cleaver in Harper anyway?)

I'd put my money on Iggy though in a physical fight: not only does he know how to use an AK-47, but one flick of the eyebrow and he'll have Harper running for his firewall.

(And don't you think there's a bit of Colin Firth in Iggy and a lot of Daniel Cleaver in Harper anyway?)

I'd put my money on Iggy though in a physical fight: not only does he know how to use an AK-47, but one flick of the eyebrow and he'll have Harper running for his firewall.

That's the funniest thing I've heard / read in a long time. Hilarious article overall!

and runs too hard from his experience, better and more relevant leadership experiences now than Harper had when he took over the Conservatives.

Unlike Harper, Iggy had zero executive experience when he became Lib Leader (he never ran anything, unless you count running his own campaign). He also had very little political experience, and very little Canadian experience, but we've been over that already.

You twice claimed he's "been promising pretty much everything to pretty much everyone", but the Conservatives are complaining that he isn't promising anything, that he has said nothing on policy and is giving no hint of where he'd take the country.

They're both right. Thanks to his grandiose, windy rhetoric and his vague, meaningless pledges, Iggy is simultaneously promising everything to everyone, while really promising nothing at all (i.e. a lack of specific policy promises that one might actually hold him accountable for.) He's trying to be some sort of weird Obama parody, and it's not really working. Unlike Obama, Iggy doesn't seem to have the skill to back up his lofty rhetoric.

But I'm curious about something else you wrote. You twice claimed he's "been promising pretty much everything to pretty much everyone", but the Conservatives are complaining that he isn't promising anything, that he has said nothing on policy and is giving no hint of where he'd take the country. Seems like a bit of a puzzling, no? But it adds to the humour so what the heck, eh?

Absolutely hilarious!

"considers his position as party leader less a job to do than a role to play. He behaves the way he thinks we expect politicians to behave"

Spot on mate. And not a litt;le bit like the last un-politician like professor to hold his job.

I tip my cap Scott. Brilliant line. Brilliant piece actually.

Remember wqhen Paul Martin's Libs ran the "How Scary" ad campaign against Harper? Guns in the streets, back alley abortionists, a gun pointed at voters? The most caustic and disgusting hateful political ads in Canadian history?

Harper's response? "I can take a punch."

Can't Ignatieff think of anything original? Oh, but he wasn't in the country when Harper said that and most likely the Harvard Review did not cover the Canadian election.

Iggy is as much an empty suit as Obama. We need both of them like a hole in the head.

I think Iggy is doing the tough talk because he/advisors thought Dion came across as being weak, and leaders need to be seen as being strong/tough, but I am not sure it's working because The Count looks like he would struggle to punch his way out of paper bag.