Today's Dominion Post Editorial is has wider messages for Labour
However, even an overdue reining in of Mr Peters is unlikely to help Labour. The poll was taken as National struggled to explain away the recordings covertly made at its annual conference that revived claims of a secret agenda. Its performance was not slick, but National, and Mr Key, have emerged untouched. Instead, the gap between him and Miss Clark opened to 12 points.
The message is that whatever concerns people have about National's too-slowly unfolding agenda, or Mr Key's lack of experience, are swamped by their disillusionment with a government too eager to tell them how to bring up their kids, what sort of light bulbs they're allowed to have, and to silence criticism in election years.
The tax cuts Finance Minister Michael Cullen delivered in his Budget were supposed to be the circuit breaker, but were too late to overturn the image of a greedy government that had taken too much in tax for too long.
There are still three months to go before the Government must hold an election, and there is still time for surprises. However, the surprise would have to be a mighty big one to stop Mr Key moving into the Beehive.
