MSM "IFFY" Watch Continues, and the impending fallout of the PM's "Piano Man" video

Sorry Libs, looks like "IFFY" is gonna stick... Greg Weston quotes it today in his article entitled "Growing iffy on Iggy". (h/t Dr. Roy) The entire article is posted below the video.

With his poll numbers continuing to fall, one would think that things couldn't get any worse for Mr. Ignatieff. I beg to differ, thanks to the timing of our Prime Minister's little ditty with Yo Yo Ma last weekend. Anyone remember what's coming up this weekend? That's right, it's Thanksgiving... a time when extended families tend to get together. And what do you think tens of thousands of Conservative supporters will be doing this weekend when talk turns to politics? Why, they're going to fire up the nearest computer, and make sure their Liberal voting relatives watch this...

As of 11:00am this morning, this hits were at 434,476. If I'm right, it's gonna top well over 500,000 by the time the Thanksgiving weekend is over. With our messaging on "Iffy" finally taking hold, and this much warmer and easy-going side of the PM on display, there's almost no doubt in my mind that the poll gap is going to widen even further.

Here's Greg's article... enjoy.

Growing iffy on Iggy
What's happened to the would-be messiah of Gritdom?
By GREG WESTON
Last Updated: 8th October 2009, 3:18am

While ordinary folk grateful for their health and harvest are digging into their Thanksgiving turkey this weekend, Michael Ignatieff would surely give thanks for just one day without someone sticking a fork in his leadership.

Pummelled in the parliamentary sandbox, pilloried by the punditocracy, knifed by his own party, the Liberal leader at least has the good humour left to call it a bad week.

It wasn't supposed to be this way.

Nine months ago, the Liberal party swapped one professor for another with high hopes Ignatieff would lead the Grits out of the opposition wilderness and back into the promised land of power.

Today, Iggy the would-be messiah of Gritdom has been mockingly recast as Count Iffy, while his party is awash in negative headlines of disarray, dismay and declining public opinion.

If an election were held today, recent public opinion polls show Stephen Harper and the Conservatives would have a good chance of forming a majority government.

All of which has the nattering classes and a lot of Liberals asking one obvious question. What the heck happened to Iggy? The answer may well be more in the expectations of his leadership than in the results to date.

Ignatieff first stepped on to the Canadian political stage in 2003 when he wowed Liberals with a powerful and eloquent speech at the party's coronation of Paul Martin.

Ignatieff's strong performance, coupled with his good looks, pedigree and international star quality, instantly put him on everyone's list of possible future leaders.

But leading a diverse and forever unpredictable political party full of competing agendas and big egos takes a lot more than compelling oratory -- just ask Barack Obama.

At the time a small group of Liberals lured Ignatieff back to Canada to run for his Toronto seat, he had spent most of his adult life in mainly solitary pursuits in journalism and academia, rarely having to manage anything larger than a lecture hall.

Bottom line: Any leadership qualities Ignatieff had entering politics were mainly untested.

Sound-bite politics

One thing that should surprise no one is that Canada's distinguished thinker-writer hasn't yet made the transition from a world of intellectual debate to the petty zoo of sound-bite politics.

Even now, Iggy's rhetoric often appears forced, his emotion insincere, key speeches sounding as though they were written more for his former doctoral students than ordinary working Canadians.

Of course, no political leader is perfect, and the most successful ones have successfully compensated for their weaknesses by surrounding themselves with the strongest advisers they can find.

So far, Ignatieff has erred on the side of loyalty over experience and ability, surrounding himself with sycophants unable or unwilling to tell the leader what he needs to hear.

Perhaps what Michael Ignatieff lacks most is time.

In total, Ignatieff has been in politics three years, only nine months of that as leader.

It is true that when Harper entered politics, he had no more relevant experience than Ignatieff.

But what most people forget is Harper had eight years in Parliament, four of them as a party leader, before he won the keys to 24 Sussex.

Finally, for those who are writing off Iggy as a lost cause, it should be noted that most of the time Harper was leader of the Opposition, he was pronounced politically dead at least twice a year.

greg.weston@sunmedia.ca