Contrasting Shearer and Key

Everybody's doing it, comparing the Budget Day speeches of David Shearer and John Key. I've my own opinion: I found Shearer to be credible but not yet solid, Key to be over-confident. Other commentators have had their say across the blogosphere and I've  chosen just a couple for this post. The first discusses what needs to be done to improve both:

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"It is definitely easier to polish a content-rich dude into something smoother, like Shearer, than trying to broaden out the facile helium-filled wonderland into something with some gravitas, like Key.

And in the end, New Zealanders really will see through Key’s candyfloss veil, and actually want something for the country with some strength and reality to it. And I think we have still have time for that."

The second comes from Colin James:

"At a post-budget standup on Thursday he lacked leader-like fluency, deferring readily – and necessarily – to finance shadow minister David Parker who had his lines off pat. This factor should diminish over time as Shearer settles – though don’t expect him to become the sort of glib performance artist John Key has become. Shearer is too earnest and too aware of complexity."