John Key VS Michael Cullen, no contest

We are currently experiencing a global financial fallout that is having effects on our Labour led mismanaged economy and we will clearly need a good person with experience and knowledge of economics and the financial markets then for the position of Prime Minister after the next election.

John Key is just that man. In fact I cant think of a more appropriate person to be at the head of an economy in recession, with unprecedented market ructions and negative consequences than a man with Key's obvious experience and qualifications:

Michael Cullen however thinks differently:

"He has got a short-term profit maximising mentality and that is what has brought Merrill Lynch and Lehmann Brothers and these other businesses to their knees.

"Do you want someone like that running the economy when we are going to be going through a difficult period."

He said he believed linking Mr Key back to the massive global company he left eight years ago was legitimate.

"Mr Key has put forward his Merrill Lynch credentials as part an important part of his narrative," he told reporters.

"That doesn't look such a good qualification any longer for running New Zealand's economy."

Of course one might like to have a look at Michael Cullen's qualifications for running an economy.

Yes of course, he has none.

Dr Cullen has a doctorate in History, so the best he can do with our economy is look back at the last 9 years in time to come and wonder how he could have gone so wrong and made so many bad decisions.

Cullen linking Key to a company that he worked for 8 years ago and somehow relating that to its collapse overnight, is desperate in the extreme and already seems to have backfired on him and his party.

Kiwis instinctively loathe this kind of senseless finger pointing but it is Cullen's style.

Instead of playing petty politics in the face of economic uncertainty, Cullen's focus should be instead on his own failures during his 9 years as finance minister and he should be pondering over why he has taxed Kiwis to the tune of 17 billion dollars above the rate of inflation during his tenure, that is $230 per week for the average family, for every week of that 9 years, of extra tax for no discernible extra service from the government.

That money would have been better back in our pockets and would have the economy to the point where New Zealand would have been in a much better position that we are now to ride out the recession.

Shame on you Mr Cullen, you are lower than a sewer rat.

Related Political Animal reading

"Little Prick", Michael Cullen misjudges market turmoil

c Political Animal 2008