Is Nick Clegg 2010 the 1997 Tony Blair?

[fembear]

Young and puppyish in a sexy way.
Says 'that other lot have been in power for too long. Vote for me and things can only get better.'
Can't pin anything on him because he's never been in power to do anything.

Please people, let's remember that the vote is supposed to be about being for policies not a knee-jerk against the status quo. We've been fooled before by fresh-faced 'ordinary bloke', let's not do it again.

I'm not saying that I'm for or against the LibDems, I just don't want us to be suckered into voting for a political party (and they have all been around a long time, even if their leaders have/have not) based on how one man comes across on TV.

I wish people would vote for them! I can't count how many times people have said to me that they would vote libdem but they don't stand a chance so it would be a waste of their vote.

grrrr

Well, if all of the people who said they wanted to vote libdem actually VOTED libdem instead of voting for someone else because libdem don't have a chance, then they might get enough votes to actually have a chance!

I don't think so. Blair always set my teeth on edge, but NC doesn't.

I also don't think that people's opinions on the lib dems will necessarily translate into votes. They have a big hill to climb in terms of being the second opposition and being seen as real contenders.

No.

Tony Blair had to change his party and their policies to the point of unrecognisability to get to be PM.

NC has stayed true to his party and their principles... but won't end up as PM.

Heathen is right. NC's philosophy is quite different, and he has a party and its principles behind him. Basically, there's substance to his style. (He's always had this style, too - I saw him speak at a couple of non-Lib Dem things when he was still an MEP, and it was just the same - direct, comfortable).

How it translates into votes all depends on the ground war - how effectively the Lib Dems manage to remind voters in a particular constituency that they're in (a close) second place there.

It's a poor comparison, and it should be the policies, not the personalities anyway. To be compared with Tony Blair is insulting.

We don't trust Tony Blair because of outright falsehoods that were the "truth" as he saw it (perhaps him, and him alone, though seems the cabinet were taken in too). A few in the cabinet rebelled and quit because they saw how wrong the attack on Iraq was, and perhaps lost trust in him.

Personally, even if the vote for the Lib Dems doesn't instantly make them the new government, it does force any future government to acknowledge, more than has been so far, that Proportional Representation is going to win out in the end.

"and perhaps lost trust in him" should have been

"and perhaps some of the remaining cabinet lost trust in him"

(something else popped up while I was typing!)

Style over substance. I cannot remember any of his policies, all he did was say how much better he would be.