"National Velvet - The coming of John Key"

For goodness sake. What an overblown title for the fairly lightweight North & South article about John Key which I've just finished reading. Mostly it's an advertisement for National's economic prescription. There's a couple of descriptions of tough conversations Key had with prospective employers on his way up. Quite impressive until you picture him telling the story himself (which is how I imagine the writer got the information).

John Key seems to be Mr Nice and he may well be. His wife of 21 years, looks surprisingly yet pleasantly nice and ordinary which (perversely) improves my opinion of him. So why am I not singing his praises in tune with the writer?

My mistrust of National. Gareth Morgan is quoted in the article so I will let him say it for me;

(Morgan says) "Key is better than Cullen," adding he doesn't consider that a particularly high hurdle...... the challenge for National is to demonstrate principles, not simply follow populist policies as he believes they did in the election run-up."Remember the only true reformer of the past 30 years, Roger Douglas, was from Labour, not one of a bunch of conservative also-rans."

There was only one other paragraph that raised my eyebrows and turned the corners of my mouth upward.

John Key is not Parliament's only state house kid made good, although former ACT party leader Richard Prebble was maybe inadvertently perspicacious when he described him as "the candidate from central casting" - in Key's case, a nod to the perennial Hollywood theme of working class hero triumphs over adversity, with a touch of Mr Smith Goes To Washington.

Mr Smith Goes To Washington? Now that is taking things too far.