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In May of 2002, US mob boss Joseph Bonanno died at the ripe old age of 97, having spent around seven decades avoiding death within the underworld. One of the things about Bonanno which has always intrigued me is how treacherous he was. His first major example of this was regarding the murder of Salvatore Maranzano – Bonanno’s mentor and a man he later claimed to have loved like a father – in September 1931.
Maranzano’s reign as head of cosa nostra was (mercifully) brief because once he became top dog his behaviour was, frankly, bizarre. Joe Bonanno was approached by Charles “Lucky” Luciano about having Maranzano murdered and in return he – Bonanno – would become head of his ‘family’. It was here that Bonanno’s true genius came to the fore; he said he’d love to be a “Godfather” but (ahem) wouldn’t betray Maranzano even though, gosh darn it, his behaviour had been strange lately.
This undoubtedly saved Bonanno’s life as getting him to say he’d betray Maranzano was Luciano’s trap – and a good reason to get rid of him once Luciano had taken over. By saying he’d never betray his mentor he let events take their course, standing on the sidelines, and emerged as head of (what is known as) the Bonanno ‘family’ shortly afterwards.
It should be noted that when Judith Collins and National were polling where Hipkins and Labour are today, TV3 news was not running stories suggesting pulling a rabbit out of a hat was still a possibility, yet they are doing so as I write this.
The biggest trap of all is the debates.
They will merely be an opportunity to ask Hipkins either patsy questions about his favourite colour, or to bemoan the moral repugnance of the hate-filled racists who comprise ‘Middle New Zealand’ who are not planning to vote Labour. They will further be an opportunity to attack Chris Luxon (“Aren’t you ashamed that all your supporters are racist bigots?“) with a series of ludicrous questions or contentions that are unprovable or false.
Mr Luxon should take my advice and refuse to debate Chris Hipkins at all.
Not only that, he should take the initiative and say “Hipkins is going to lose the election and quit on election night – so why bother debating him?“. This should be followed up with a real cat among the pigeons of saying, “I will happily debate the next Labour leader; if Labour tells us who their new leader will be, I will debate them“, putting things squarely back on his opponents.
Any suggestion from Hipkins and Labour that they may actually win would seem ludicrous, and unconvincing, and have most people roaring with laughter – doing even more damage.
Another major trap to fall into is constantly talking about other party leaders. Luxon has already been sidetracked with discussions about Winston and Seymour and it’s a mistake to do so. Just stop doing it!
Luxon also hasn’t nipped the “Coalition of Chaos” claim in the bud by reminding everyone that Labour lost five cabinet ministers in two months. Finally, if Chris Luxon had any sense he would restart his public meetings. He should whistlestop the country speaking to large audiences and stop the silly photo opportunity stuff. It worked for Muldoon.
