This should be a political boom time for the FNM. But it isn't because of the disastrous leadership of Dr. Hubert Minnis, who has proved to be so dismal a leader, that he has near single-handedly created a crisis within the FNM, driving away FNMs and general voters.
Prominent FNMs have left, with more likely to leave under Minnis. Many independent voters equally loathe the prospect of voting for the PLP under Perry Christie or the FNM under Hubert Minnis. In a quandary, they are wondering where to turn.
The country continues to reel from economic problems and high unemployment as well as high rates of violent crime and public anxiety. The PLP's promise to tackle these issues has turned to dust, with the government bumbling from one failure to the next.
The PLP is immeasurably worse than its last term in office. It has broken promises with abandon, betrayed voters on the gambling referendum and failed to bring mortgage relief as promised. Perry Christie is as incompetent, weak and dysfunctional as ever as head of government.
There are mounting questions of scandal and corruption in an administration brimming with arrogance and smugness, one that is indifferent and out of touch with the daily struggles of the Bahamian people. There is an overwhelming sense that the country is moving in the wrong direction.
Bahamians are struggling to keep the lights on, to pay grocery bills, to pay for health care and other costs. Next year they will be hit hard with VAT as the government continues to waste money on many fronts, while most Bahamians struggle to decide what portion of which bills can be paid in any given month.
Yet, amidst this perfect storm of widespread public discontent and the massive failures of and loss of trust in the Christie administration, the opposition Free National Movement flounders, largely unable to take advantage of the current national malaise.
The opposition's failure is two-fold. It has generally failed to effectively oppose the government or to offer an alternative vision.
Punch line
The failure is overwhelmingly that of Minnis, who has proved to be spectacularly incompetent, woefully inarticulate and now a punch line for many jokes. Hubert Minnis has become the Sarah Palin of Bahamian politics, with voters cringing at many of his public utterances.
Our Bahamian Palin stated, "...Everyone reaches a certain level when they would be maxed out, suffer from brain drain and become stagnant." He has spoken of a "quagmire of web". In criticizing the government, he made a distasteful reference to the missing Malaysian Airlines Flight 370 then failed to apologize for his comments.
Speaking in reference to the seizure of computers from the home of FNM Chairman Darron Cash, Minnis noted that he didn't fear the police seizing his computer because the information on it was "cryptic". Presumably, he meant encrypted.
Like Palin, these are not simply verbal gaffes. Instead they speak to mangled and poor thinking, a pattern signifying an inability for comprehensible and clear thought on a host of issues. Palin and Minnis are not folksy. They are uninformed, inarticulate and profoundly out of their depth.
Sarah Palin would have been a disaster as the American vice president, with the world laughing at the United States. Hubert Minnis would be a disaster as head of government, with other countries snickering at the country.
Bahamians have had more than two years to assess Minnis' performance as opposition leader. Arguably, the majority of voters are horrified, not just by his verbal gaffes, but also by his stunning ignorance of basic facts, his ongoing policy flip-flops and his general abysmal performance.
He has gotten deficit numbers wrong, has been made fun of repeatedly by the PLP in the House for the mistakes even a rookie MP should not make and has mangled so many responses in public forums and in press interviews, that he has enough material for a blog of bloopers, stumbles and incomprehensible mistakes.
Recall his mindless and disastrous decision to sign off on a House of Assembly Select Committee report recommending a salary and allowance increase for parliamentarians, an introduction of grants for parties in the House, the building of a new Parliament and other recommendations.
How bad is Minnis? A comparison is in order. DNA Leader Branville McCartney is an empty vessel in terms of policy and substance. He is a wiz at showboating and the sound bite, endlessly regurgitating the ideas of others, with precious little original thinking.
Like flakes
He is more actor than serious politician, often fumbling his responses. His performance on a recent talk show on Guardian Radio was exceedingly poor, which was no surprise, as when pressed beyond sound bites, McCartney's studied character and appearance, and his credibility, easily collapse like flakes.
There have always been political charlatans and jives. McCartney's swollen ego and seizing ambition is to revel in the glory and the trappings of being prime minister with the paparazzi broadcasting his celebrity status far and wide.
But Minnis is so bad, so unappealing to arguably the majority of voters, so lacking as a leader, that increasingly more voters are falling for McCartney's shtick.
The FNM must face the external challenge posed by the PLP and the DNA. But it must first face the internal challenge of a leader who makes Branville McCartney and his ego party look somehow attractive.
The major challenge for the FNM is not mostly from without. In Minnis, the party is faced with a leader who is dragging down the party's popularity, especially with many younger voters. It is faced with someone most voters seem to have concluded would be a disaster as prime minister.
As noted in a National Review piece in this journal: "If he [Dr. Minnis] cannot get simple things right in opposition, we have to wonder how he could competently lead an entire nation as prime minister. These small things speak to ability, and Minnis has thus far been unconvincing in this regard...
"He is not what the FNM needs if it intends to again do serious battle with the Progressive Liberal Party."
Several serious and properly conducted polls reveal how Minnis is not a leading choice with the voting public.
Much of the press have written him off. If the FNM continues with his leadership, it will be a suicidal pact, with the party having to wait until 2022 at the earliest for another chance to win the government.
The FNM needs every advantage possible to win the next election. Despite disaffection with the government, the next election will not be easy. The PLP will have plenty money. Its base will likely hold. The DNA will press its advantages.
With Minnis as leader, quite a number of FNMs may not vote or may vote for another party. Most frightening, those who go to bed with Branville McCartney on election night 2017 will almost certainly wake up the next morning with Perry Christie. Is this what it will take for FNMs to get the message about Hubert Minnis' disastrous tenure as leader?
o frontporchguardian@gmail.com, www.bahamapundit.com.

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