We need to hear what really matters from the Prime Minister.
As a performance artist, John Key has it all over Phil Goff. He can do the star turns - the glib one-liners. In Parliament, he is quick with the verbal counterpunch.
Whether it's son Max telling him off for getting porky or daughter Steff's Parisian exploits, his family is simple
fodder when he wants to make a connection or draw some laughs (usually at his own expense) during a rollicking after-dinner speech.
All New Zealanders know Key has fulfilled his childhood dream by becoming Prime Minister of our small nation. But does he really have serious aspirations for his prime ministership? Or even New Zealand?
I caught a glimpse of Key's thoughtful side during a long discussion on the flight home from an Indian business mission.
There had been plenty of photo-ops during the past three days: Key playing cricket with Stephen Fleming; "John kissing Bronagh" outside the Taj Mahal after a mad hour spent circling fog-bound Agra in an Air India jet waiting for some visibility to open up so the plane could land. Some substance as well - but that wasn't what led the news bulletins back home.
But when he got a bit huffy over a Herald journalist's story on Key's use of the air force 757 jet, I had to bite back a tart "What do you expect Prime Minister when your press secretaries feed the press corp fluffy stuff because that's all they want" at the expense of the very substance that would make it clear to other than the most perverse journalist or editor that the potential payback from opening new markets far outweighs a piffling fuel bill.
After another inane week in these increasingly strange South Sea islands, where even a yarn over some poor sod who got pissed, pee'd all over himself and others on a Jetstar flight became the main story of the day, I'd have to say the PM's minders have a point.
But Key needs to be a hell of a lot better than this.
A visitor to our "islands" this week would have been hard-pressed to know from the news headlining the television bulletins or the front pages that Italy was on the verge of joining the troubled eurozone economies or PIGS - Portugal, Ireland, Greece and Spain - and that the United States Government will default (an unthinkable scenario five years ago) if Obama can't get the debt ceiling lifted.
Thank God for Rupert Murdoch. He may have employed a bunch of journalistic predators to feed his "gotcha" tabloids. But at least Murdoch invested in Sky.
If you really wanted to know what was happening outside our islands this week it was Sky TV with its access to Sky News, France 24, Russian TV, CCTV, CNBC, Fox, CNN, BBC World, and Al Jazeera that had all the critical angles.
This is important stuff.
This is also the world that Key will be inhabiting when he finally gets his date with President Obama in Washington DC this week.
I hope his minders put substance over form this time round rather than opting for the punchy soundbites and faux celebrity style entertainment appearances.
It is critical for New Zealand that he does opt for a substantive approach.
That he does lift his game.
It's also critical that the news media lifts its game and doesn't relegate the Key coverage in favour of the latest item of tantalising junk food journalism.
We need Key to tell us what the impact will be on New Zealand if Standard and Poor's does the unthinkable and downgrades the US Government. And what will happen then to our own big borrowings.
And we also need to know what chips Key will play to get a free trade deal with the US - and whether Obama even wants to play when he has such issues on his plate. Then there is Afghanistan.
Key will find that Obama has long ago lost patience with the trifling sideshows of politics. As the president said when Donald Trump hassled him over his birth certificate: "We're not going to be able to solve our problems if we get distracted by sideshows and carnival barkers. There are a lot of folks out there still looking for work ... we do not have time for this kind of silliness. We've got better stuff to do."
As his White House communications director blogged: "At a time of great consequence for this country - when we should be debating how we win the future, reduce our deficit, deal with high gas prices, and bring stability to the Middle East, Washington, DC, was once again distracted by a fake issue."
Amen to that.
Take note, PM.
