KEY POINTS:
Condoleeza Rice rang Michael Cullen yesterday. She didn't call Bill English. The American Secretary of State wanted to discuss New Zealand's views on the international financial crisis.
English could be Finance Minister in all but name in eight days. But protocol dictated she talk to Cullen.
Such are the advantages of incumbency. Those perturbed by the unholy bidding war between Labour and National over who is best to manage the economy out of deep recession need to chew on that.
The global credit crunch may be casting a huge shadow over this election. But the election still goes on.
It is all very well to argue that the parties work co-operatively in the national interest to manage the crisis.
But the only beneficiary would be Labour. There is no incentive for National to act in bipartisan fashion.
Even when it offered to do so over the bank deposit guarantee scheme, Labour interpreted John Key's initiative as politically motivated.
To understand why the parties are continuing to compete rather than co-operate look no further than Gordon Brown, Britain's beleaguered Labour Prime Minister.
He has gone from zero to hero in his handling of the financial crisis both domestically and internationally. That has not been lost on either Labour or National here.
Brown was allowed to grab the opportunity to rescue his prime ministership in part because the Opposition Conservative Party offered bipartisan support during Britain's recent banking crisis.
With the next British elections still two years away, the Conservatives could afford to be seen to be putting the national interest ahead of party politics.
National could hardly be expected to similarly give Labour the opportunity to push up its poll rating.
So the two major parties are instead playing the political equivalent of poker by constantly raising the stakes by coming up with bigger and better rescue plans for the economy and assistance packages for those who will lose their jobs.
Labour yesterday promised an income-tested job search allowance equivalent to the unemployment benefit for up to 13 weeks for someone whose partner is working and who has been in the workforce for at least five years.
The move was a pre-emptive strike ahead of National's release today of its "transitional assistance" package, which will provide similar time-limited grants for those laid off.
National's initiative was designed to outmanoeuvre Labour which had previously gone one better than National by indicating it would bring forward "job rich" infrastructure construction projects to soak up the expected increase in unemployed.
Closer scrutiny reveals that Labour's redundancy help package is far less generous than appears at first sight. But you get the picture. Neither party is prepared to surrender ground.
It may all look opportunistic. It may look ad hoc. It may look like policy on the hoof. It may look like the parties are spending money the country no longer has with reckless abandon.
But it would be naive to expect anything else.
