As Hilary Clinton learned, winning the popular vote does not necessarily provide the keys to power.
In polling terms Sinn Fein has often touched on joining Fine Gael and Fianna Fail as being one of the big political Parties in the Irish Republic. At around 24% of the vote in the recent election its claim of having a popular mandate being in Government is a stretch, but if it were any other Party it might be more palatable as a coalition partner.
There are three good reasons why that isn’t the case politically, and there is a range of economic issues that Sinn Fein in any way part of Government that make it wholly unsuited:
- it has a poor record in Government,
- it has not proven to be a reliable partner in Government,
- and then there is the IRA;
- and the economics of the Irish economy will find no solutions in a Chavez-inspired manifesto.