How on Earth is Labour going to sell itself at the next election?
Cast your mind back to 2017. Think of everything Labour and Jacinda Ardern promised and represented. Then contrast it to where we are now - this week - and tell me what they can promise that we'll believe, at that crucial moment in the ballot box?
There's little chance Jacindamania would happen again. It's not because the PM isn't popular enough. Both TV polls this week put her at 38 per cent in personal popularity. That's not great, but it's not terrible. The problem is how much lower that score is from what it was. Her popularity has come back as much as 10 points in one poll.
So it's not popularity that could dampen Jacindamania II, it's enthusiasm. It's hard to be enthusiastic about a brand suffering this much damage. And that's what is happening to Ardern. The list of mini-scandals and sip ups that have dented the PM's brand is too long for a PM who's only been in power two years.
It'd be impossible for Ardern to run on the same brand as 2017. Last time, she used compassion, kindness, honesty and transparency. Few now would believe her if she said - like she did in 2017 - that it was "possible to exist in politics without lying". She's been caught out in too many half truths for that to be convincing. Compassion's going to be a hard one to run out too. Her reason for being in politics - child poverty - has hardly featured in her schedule over the last two years. Kindness got a bashing this week when she cut her mate Justin Lester loose from the party just two days after he lost his job as Wellington mayor.