The Race for the ARAS.....

[Donnellys Hollow]

Michael D - His to lose now as it has been for the vast majority of the campaign. Raging I didn't take the 7/2 that was available at the weekend but managed to back him at 11/4 and 5/2 again today. May lay some of that off tomorrow!!

McGuinness - Performed very well tonight and "did the state some service" by exposing Gallagher for the fraud he is. Handled the silly question from the audience very well. People are well aware of his IRA past and will have made their own judgement on it long before now. He'll poll well but the best he can hope for is a solid showing in third place unless Gallagher completely implodes.

Norris - His best showing so far in any of these debates but too little too late at this stage.

Mitchell - Needed to show a bit of fire long ago but when he finally decided to come out fighting tonight he went on a rant against the Plank! Disastrous choice of candidate from Fine Gael.

Dana - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9cH7xBX5GxQ

Davis - Meh.

Gallagher - Will do very well to recover from here. I find it hard to believe the recent polls anyway because I certainly haven't come across many people who would even consider voting for him. Very Bertiesque in his approach. All soundbites and cliches when asked basic questions ("entrepreneur", "youth worker", "jobs", "language of enterprise" etc.) but then rambles away on a tangent when quizzed on the specifics.

[gallsman]

De Indo
McGuinness launches attack on Gallagher's FF links

*"Journalism"*

Looks like most of this article was written in the afternoon and a few lines were added tonight to pretend to be giving an analysis on the debate. Deadlines and all that!

The reason is sounds like it was written this afternoon is because it was. The article clearly references the Google/Newstalk debate which was held this afternoon in the Google HQ on Barrow Street and mentions that it's prior to the Frontline debate.

Nothing untoward whatsoever.

[screenmachine]

Is there anywhere to watch or listen to the debate online?  (In the North as the RTE Player is a bollocks  )

[liihb]

Norris and Michael D were the men for me last night. Gallagher has no real substance, and cannot perform in debates. The irony of McGuinness telling him to answer the question was hilarious. The bullshit about the McConville family interpreting her murder as murder shows him up again to be totally out of touch with the majority of the electorate in the South.  Looks like a complete set up by Sinn Fein last night, the twitter account is not real, and there was plenty of Shinners in the rent a crowd.
Davis was blander than bland, Mitchell and idiot, and Dana worse....

[screenmachine]

I take it all back, the RTE Player is a fantastic resource...

[Nally Stand]

Norris and Michael D were the men for me last night. Gallagher has no real substance, and cannot perform in debates. The irony of McGuinness telling him to answer the question was hilarious. The bullshit about the McConville family interpreting her murder as murder shows him up again to be totally out of touch with the majority of the electorate in the South.  Looks like a complete set up by Sinn Fein last night, the twitter account is not real, and there was plenty of Shinners in the rent a crowd.
Davis was blander than bland, Mitchell and idiot, and Dana worse....

And what exactly did Norris or Higgins do that means they won the debate? Higgins from what I can see, added nothing (all he needed to do thanks to McG dealing with Gallagher) and Norris did his usual - shouted in his best English accent and making no real points what so ever. The fact that those two men were second and third in my eyes shows just how poor a field it is.  The debate will be remembered for the impact made by one candidate (McG) who has in all probability, ended any hopes of the man who was the clear poll topper for the last fortnight. Can you honestly say any other candidate did or said ANYTHING which made an impact like that?

[liihb]

Of course no one made an impact like that, and I wouldn't congratulate McGuinness for something that was clearly orchestrated. They even had the home town crowd. I think that Sean Gallagher and his camp should look at themselves for not being ready for that line of questioning, it was obvious that he was so far ahead that he was going to be targetted. The second most impactful thing for me was McGuinness not calling Jean McConvilles murder as murder. He thinks he's the master of the double speak, but actually its very obvious what he was, and if he wants some kudos, he should come out, answer the odd question directly. "I've worked for peace for 30 years was another gem."
Micheal D was by far and away the most statesmanlike last night. McGuinness took down Gallagher, and all he needed to do was keep schtum, and he did. Norris I liked for the pure comedy factor, not for any other reason - the joke about the reference to the envelope being unfortunate was brilliant!

[cicfada]

Mc Guinness is being given credit here when it was Pat Kenny that really laid  it up for him with his "Sinn Fein are going to reveal the donor" comment!Also there was no comment on the relationship between MMG and this   convicted smuggler  as well! After all they had spoken on the phone earlier!! Whichever RTE researcher read the comment on Twitter deserves the praise too. MMG would not have landed any punch of any description without that intervention.  Very entertaining debate though and Norris was so witty. Michael D will probably  end up getting the extra votes now

[highorlow]

During the debate / argument last night I realised how poor and unintelligent the whole shower are, even Micheal D (he may be intelligent in an eccentric way but that's no statesman imo).

It is a real real pity that Dermot Earley has passed away. I think were he alive he would have won and been our next president.

[ross matt]

During the debate / argument last night I realised how poor and unintelligent the whole shower are, even Micheal D (he may be intelligent in an eccentric way but that's no statesman imo).

It is a real real pity that Dermot Earley has passed away. I think were he alive he would have won and been our next president.

+1000. A real patriot.

[Nally Stand]

Of course no one made an impact like that, and I wouldn't congratulate McGuinness for something that was clearly orchestrated. They even had the home town crowd. I think that Sean Gallagher and his camp should look at themselves for not being ready for that line of questioning, it was obvious that he was so far ahead that he was going to be targetted. The second most impactful thing for me was McGuinness not calling Jean McConvilles murder as murder. He thinks he's the master of the double speak, but actually its very obvious what he was, and if he wants some kudos, he should come out, answer the odd question directly. "I've worked for peace for 30 years was another gem."
Micheal D was by far and away the most statesmanlike last night. McGuinness took down Gallagher, and all he needed to do was keep schtum, and he did. Norris I liked for the pure comedy factor, not for any other reason - the joke about the reference to the envelope being unfortunate was brilliant!

Home town crowd? Five supporters from each candidate! The reason he got such applause was for sticking it to gallagher, which everyone was delighted to see. Doing nothing and letting McG win the election for you is hardly winning a debate. It could be called winning the election by default. Long story short, not one other candidate came even remotely close to making the sort of impact McG did last night. How that can be denied is beyond me.

[Declan]

Great entertainment that was - Jaysus you can take the man out of FF but......

[sheamy]

McGuinness is being given credit here when it was Pat Kenny that really laid it up for him

I wouldn't congratulate McGuinness for something that was clearly orchestrated.

So Pat Kenny uncovered the revelation and null points for Martin because he did some research? Can you not even bring yourself to give the man credit for unearthing something so crucial in highlighting the fact that the man the Irish people were about to elect as president comes from the same culture of brown evelopes, lies, greed and cronyism which made a massive contribution to the culture which bankrupted this country?

[mayogodhelpus@gmail.com]

Is there anywhere to watch or listen to the debate online?  (In the North as the RTE Player is a bollocks  )

How long since you used RTE player, I watched it live here in Britain and it worked perfectly (well stalled once or twice, but almost perfect).

[Nally Stand]

Mc Guinness is being given credit here when it was Pat Kenny that really laid  it up for him with his "Sinn Fein are going to reveal the donor" comment!Also there was no comment on the relationship between MMG and this   convicted smuggler  as well! After all they had spoken on the phone earlier!! Whichever RTE researcher read the comment on Twitter deserves the praise too. MMG would not have landed any punch of any description without that intervention.  Very entertaining debate though and Norris was so witty. Michael D will probably  end up getting the extra votes now

Whatever researcher it was deserves no praise. Vincent Brown afterwards clarified that the twitter account is not an official one and clarified that SF were not aware of any such press conference with the man in question. So Pat was "laying it on?" If McG didn't make his reveleation, Pat couldn't have laid anything on. Furthermore, in the RTÉ press conference after the debate, McG stated he has no relationship with this person. The man does seem to have a connection to Adams in Louth which is most likely the way it worked out.