KEY POINTS:
The results of the first set of Herald online character polls are in so take a bow Jeanette Fitzsimons and Rodney Hide.
The two minor party leaders are punching well above their weight in being viewed positively by Herald online voters.
All week nzherald.co.nz has been asking readers questions about how they view the character of the leaders; questions like which politician do you think would have the best manners or who would you rather be stranded on a desert island with.
John Key has come out top of each poll question asking about positive characteristics. But even he has failed to net the levels he achieves in the Herald's formal Digipoll questionnaire of 1000 voters on who is New Zealand's preferred Prime Minister.
The only area where he exceeded his preferred PM rating of 45 per cent was on the question of good manners. Well over half of the nearly 5000 online readers thought he would have the best manners of the political leaders.
By contrast, Fitzsimons and Hide are polling well above their profile; many of you think Rodney Hide is likely to help an old lady across the road.
And you like Fitzsimons' manners. She was rated by 13 per cent of voters as being well-mannered, behind John Key but a massive jump from her preferred Prime Minister rating of 0.8 per cent.
Rodney Hide, who hardly even features in the Herald's Digipoll PM polls, came a strong second behind Key on which politician would you rather be stranded on a desert island with. And over a quarter of the 3000 online voters thought he'd be most comfortable at the Speedway.
Helen Clark? Well behind Key, and sometimes even Fitzsimons and Hide, except when it comes to who you think might stab you in the back. Then she and Winston Peters were winners with Key third.
The online readers polls are definitely not scientific, nor should they be taken particularly seriously, but they do give some insights into how readers view leaders' personalities.
The poll is based on an idea in an Australian magazine, the now defunct Bulletin, which ran an extensive Nielsen poll asking Australians similar questions on the grounds that "perceptions do affect the way people vote".
You can vote in the current poll on nzherald.co.nz - who would be most likely to get a tattoo?
And, as a warning to exuberant partisan supporters organising mass voting, we are already thinking of our next poll: Which political leader do you think would be most likely to receive a mass block of votes on an online poll?
Jeremy Rees is head of the Herald online and deputy editor of the NZ Herald.
