Thursday, October 13, 2005

Duck suddenly gets that sinking feeling


Presidential election, latest polls: GFK Pollsters – Donald Tusk 62%…Lech Kaczynski 38%……OBOP Polls - Donald Tusk 56%…Lech Kaczynski 44%…
Lech Kaczynski sees support slip away as one of his staff puts his foot in it. (photo: Kaczynski back in the days when he was best buddies with Walesa).

Lech Kaczynski has sacked his campaign manager, Jacek Kurski, after he made false accusations that Donald Tusk’s grandfather volunteered to fight for the Nazi’s during WWII.

Kurski had told a weekly magazine that, “Reliable sources in Pomerania [the area around Gdansk where Tusk is from] say that Tusk’s grandfather volunteered for the Wehrmacht."

Donald Tusk immediately quashed the story by proving that both his grandfathers had fought for AKA (resistance) during the war, and spent some time in a concentration camp for their troubles.

Kaczynski has responded by apologizing to Tusk and sacking Kurski. He claims that the comments were made without his consent, and that he new nothing about the allegations before they appeared in the weekly Agora. Kurski has defended himself by saying that the comments came at the end of a long interview with journalists, who constantly questioned him on rumours about Tusk and his family. Finally, he says, he admitted that there 'were rumours', but did not say that he thought this gossip was true.

Nevertheless, how much has the affair damaged Kaczynski, who prides himself on his honesty and straight talking approach?

According to a poll published last night on the daily Fakty newscast on TVN, Tusk has now increased his lead on Kaczynski to 24 points - though another by OBOP finds that this lead to be 12% - still a movement away from Lech by two points, at 56 - 44%.

This all comes on the back of Lech Walesa announcing that he is rooting for Donald Tusk in the second round on October 23. Kaczynski used to be Walesa’s second in command in Solidarity, and was thought to be the heir to his thrown.

And then they had a few arguments. Big ones. Legal writs have flown, and many a bad word said.

So Walesa voting Tusk is another kick in the marginals. It’s not been a good few days for the Duck.

4 comments:

Gustav said...

Kurski's brilliant management of Duckboy's campaign was largely what led to PiS' victory in the parliamentary polls - Now his gaffe is gonna cost Duckboy the presidency.

Bialynia said...

I'm surprised this is having a negative effect for Kaczynski. I figured the mention that Tusk's family had Nazi ties would get all the Lepper voters into Kaczynski's camp, regardless of its factual veracity. I also thought that Kaczynski's quick response was a coordinated decision, I thought it was staged. Get "Nazi" into voters minds, and show that Kaczynski holds his people accountable. If Turd Blossom has said that about Kerry, Bush would have shrugged his shoulders.

beatroot said...

I suppose it is Turd Blossom's reputation as an 'honest geezer' that is on the line here. He wants to 'clean up' Poland and be 'straight with the people', not like those commie bastards.

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