OPINION/Mark HennessyBertie Ahern's interview with RTE's Prime Time was a rare occasion when he has made himself available for detailed questioning, regardless of his much-vaunted reputation for accessibility. Ever-calculating, his outing before the cameras on Thursday, taped before he travelled to Greece for the European Council summit meeting, is part of a deliberate strategy.
Conscious that he has been on the rack, Ahern must change the ground on which the debate about the Government's performance takes place before voters' thoughts drift off to beaches and sun tan oil.
The same motivation was on display when the Government marshalled its forces to oppose Labour's Private Members Time motion in the Dáil this week. Its biggest hitters, Ahern, the Tánaiste, Charlie McCreevy and Brian Cowen all turned up to denounce Labour's charge that the year-old Government has broken election promises.
In all, the Prime Time opportunity was well timed, partly because it came a day after the Government launched its programme to drag the health services into the 21st Century.
But it was also simply a good performance, and further evidence for anyone who needs it that the Taoiseach is only incoherent in many interviews because he chooses to be evasive, not because he can't speak English.
One good interview, though, does not make for a recovery. The Government has significant ground to make up, if it is to persuade a doubtful electorate that it was not sold "porkies" last May, or, if they were, that there are other priorities.
The reality is that Fianna Fáil and the Progressive Democrats sold quite a few - not as many as the Opposition alleges, but more than enough to poison the well of public opinion for now.
Rulers have always faced such charges, though sometimes with less justification than others.
The Government can fight back if it acts dynamically - not something that even its supporters would argue that it has done much of up to now.
Nevertheless, Míchael Martin, acting like a man transformed, managed to do so during Wednesday's launch, eagerly interrupting, and adding to, the answers of Ahern, the Tánaiste and Charlie McCreevy.
The relative silence of McCreevy was intriguing. Indeed, it was difficult to tell whether he was bored, or just aware that the gloss will disappear off the reforms as soon as anyone tries to implement them.
Oddly, the Government failed properly to exploit the weakness of the medical consultants this week, following the rollicking they received from Professor Niamh Brennan. Quietly, slowly, but fiercely, Brennan, on RTÉ's Six One News, brought into the open the ludicrous contract which allows many of them to get paid for letting other people do their work.
It was about time that the consultants faced the lash, but Brennan deserves plaudits by the score and a place in the Government's team which will now have to turn theory into practice.
Along with her colleagues, Brennan recommended that new consultants should work exclusively for the State, though McCreevy said the Government was not "going down that road".
Martin and the Taoiseach both emphasised that a new deal must be negotiated with - not imposed on - consultants. True, but if opponents have been skewered it seems unwise to let them off the hook.
Despite all of its talk, and there has been much of it, the Government has given scant evidence that we should believe them when they say that they will take on powerful vested interests.
Up to now, the Opposition has sensibly offered the health reform package a fairish wind, since there is no point being churlish about an issue where the public wants progress made.
However, Fine Gael and Labour and the others can bide their time. The changes will require complex legislation and will, at best, be slowly produced, leaving plenty of time for political ambushes.
So far, the Government has been accused of all sorts of "spin management" for publishing Brennan and Prospectus, while leaving the Hanly Report aside until next month.
Hanly, which, if put into effect, will see local hospitals losing some services, holds political landmines, and the Government may have feared that it would have shifted the attention away from consultants and reforms. The health boards and their members will be around until the local elections take place next May, so local opposition will have plenty of time to form, and the forum in which to do it.
The Taoiseach cannot afford a poor local election result, since this will create jitters amongst his parliamentary party - quite a few of whom are bad enough Nervous Nellies as it is.
Delaying Hanly's publication will do little about any of that. It will cause difficulties whenever it comes out, particularly once details of closures are fleshed out.
And it will come out at a time when the population is still suffering from the bitter hangover left by the passage of the Celtic Tiger, even by those who never enjoyed much of its fruits when it was around.
For many, this is the Monday after the long weekend. Heads are sore, the Solphadeine has run out, we are late for work and the kids are acting up.
People in such humour will always be hard to govern, especially when their rulers have given them grounds for being bad-tempered.