Fiona O'Malley and Ciaran Cannon have different styles but share the same vision of the PDs' future, writes Harry McGee, Political Staff.
ON THURSDAY night in a suburban south Dublin hotel, the two PD leadership hopefuls delivered presentations that were identikits of each other in every respect bar one.
Senators Fiona O'Malley and Ciaran Cannon had done their separate analysis on last summer's disaster and come up with the same symptoms and the same prognosis.
As the debate unfolded in front of a crowded room in the Stillorgan Park Hotel it became like a game of political snap. One would throw a policy or a vision out on the table. A couple of minutes later, the other would produce the exact same card from the pack
Both want tolls to be scrapped on the M50. As for eco-credentials, both were greener than Trevor Sargent. They also agreed the power base of the Progressive Democrats needs to move away from the beltway and the leadership elite.
The tango continued with both declaring themselves open to nuclear power, more competition and letting Bertie finish his evidence to the tribunal.
They also agreed the party had sold itself abysmally and that Mary Harney and Des O'Malley should be Ireland's next candidates for beatification.
It was only towards the end of the debate that a difference of opinion emerged.
A delegate, John Dunne from Dublin South, asked each: "Are you more Hillary or Obama?"O'Malley said Clinton ("I prefer Hilary if I have to give you a solid answer"), while Cannon said Obama ("I find listening to him inspirational").
It gave a neat little piece of symmetry; the PDs' own mini-version of the showdown within the Democratic Party. But as the cynics (and there are a lot of them around Leinster House) point out, in the Irish case, never have the stakes been so low.
On the plus side for the PDs, the leadership contest has given the party a new focus, a jolt of energy, and a chance to seriously examine what it stands for.
In Cannon and O'Malley, the PDs have two relatively young candidates (both are aged about 40) who have brought great energy to the debate.
The immediate future is a four-member parliamentary party, a total of 28 councillors and a new leader commanding from the Seanad who has no guarantee of getting elected to the Dáil.
The meeting on Thursday was the eighth and final debate of a countrywide series. After rumours of low turn-outs in Cork and Laois-Offaly, the attendances were respectable in the PD heartlands of Limerick, Galway and Dublin.
On Thursday about 150 people turned up, leaving the organisers scrambling to find some extra chairs.
While the two candidates had similar policies their styles were quite different. Cannon was strong on detail and conveyed an impression of having good organisational skills. O'Malley on the other hand did not quite hit the mark on detail but made up for it with her passion, her charm and the force of her personality.
"Fire in the belly is a family trait and it's what fuels my ambition to lead this party," she said.
"I was born into politics and it fuels my career. I do not want to be a member of any other political organisation."
Said Cannon: "We are demonised as a party of the superwealthy and most of all as a party of the uncaring. Do not tell me that this is a party that does not care. We now need to be seen as the party who continues to fight for those in the fringes."
The new leader will be announced on April 16th. Whoever it is will have 14 months before the local elections to turn the party around.
For now, no one knows if it is a period of rebuilding or just borrowed time.