State Of It: Manning & Williams - Arise King David! (video)

Scoop Link: State Of It With Glenn Williams & Selwyn Manning – Arise King David! As the old adage goes, a week is a long long time in Politics... And 24 hours can create a situation where a rank outsider can become a leading contender. The politicisation of David Shearer, he says began with the anti-nuclear movement in the 1980s.

Run-Sheet Points: What can we draw from that? Check out this excerpt from his Maiden Speech to Parliament (1:01 to 1:32).

While he is short of political experience, he has vast experience abroad – as he said earlier this week: while John Key was overseas making money, David Shearer was overseas saving lives.

He's fresh, can see the problems inside Labour from an outsider's point of view, and has more than one idea on how to turn Labour around.

So how does he square up against David Cunliffe?

Here's David Cunliffe noting what he will bring to the leadership (0:08 to 0:25).

Cunliffe is a smart politician, he was a capable Minister of Health, and has the intellectual grunt to handle complex legislative reform.

But he's not that well liked inside Labour's caucus. Why is this so?

So, what challenges do each of these two leading candidates have to overcome to become the Labour Party's new leader?

And David Cunliffe's challenges would appear very challenging indeed...

Here is 3News' Paddy Gower announcing last night that David Parker had pulled out of the leadership race and was now backing David Shearer (0:16 to 0:45).

Commonsense would suggest that Labour's caucus, and its membership, should check out the public mood while deciding who should be leader.

And on that note just check out the Stuff.co.nz website poll where David Shearer is favoured by around 57% compared to David Cunliffe back on 16.6%.

For more multimedia analysis, see LiveNews.co.nz

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