Headline with a pun based on the word poll

Another bad poll for Labour in the Dom Post today. National with a sizable 23-point lead.
I must take issue with the analysis of the results though.

One in four of National's support base have switched to the party this year. That suggests Mr Key easily won the early election year jousting - at Waitangi, over boot camps for young offenders in his state of the nation speech, and at the opening of Parliament.

Or maybe INTEREST FREE STUDENT LOANS AND RETAINING KIWISAVER.

No, of course, the rise in voter support has be as a result of the narrative our serious and well-respected journalists create. Silly voters don't care about saving or earning thousands of dollars in interest over a lifetime, what they care about is Tame Iti, boot camps and the 20 seconds of John Key's opening day speech they saw on the news.

The DomPost also claims "The plunge in her support is likely to spark speculation of a leadership coup." (against Helen Clark)
Why?
Her preferred PM rating is 29%, her party's is at 32%, A difference of just three points, yet National is the preferred party of 55% in this poll, while Key only has 44% support for preferred PM, a difference of 11 points.

Labour have a lot of 'issues' to resolve this year, but Clark's leadership is definitely not one of them.

Coal in Labour's Christmas stocking

The TVNZ & TV3 polls represent another toweling for Labour as they burn off more soft voters inching closer to just the 30% 'hardcore' base, whose politics while dissimilar from loyal Bushies, their loyalty is not.

It is a little annoying to see both TV3 & One shrilly decree that the Greens are in trouble with 4.8 & 4.6 in their polls, while neglecting to mention the common trend of third parties to poll lower outside an election year. TV3 even stated that the last time the Greens polled under 5% was 3 years ago, one year out from an election.
The Green vote should strengthen in 2008 especially if the perception of a losing Labour Party sets in.

To get his party over 50% all John Key has had to do is sit back and watch Labour implode under the weight of it's own stupidity.
At least Don Brash's poll surges came on the back of policy announcements to bash Maori, cut taxes and get rid of that "PC jibber-jabber".

If Labour stopped obsessing over regulating the Exclusive Brethren's ineffectual pamphlets and forced National to say what they would do better, they could reverse this trend.
There's a real possibility that National could gain power without having to state it's policies.
Recent examples in 1984 & 1990 didn't turn out so well.

TVNZ poll will be 'superbad' for Labour

I heard yesteday that the opinion poll TVNZ is releasing in the weekend looks really bad for Labour. The poll was conducted over the past week or so, right in the middle of the EFB debacle.

It will be interesting to see just how much more soft support Labour have lost, and how close they are getting to 30% and just the 'hardcore' supporters.

Perhaps this poll along with their own (bad) internal polling might give Labour pause for a rethink and come up with some sort of face-saving compromise before the EFB vote on Tuesday.
Yeah Right.