IT'S SUPER BOB!

Did you know that Sideshow Bob can leap tall buildings in a single bound?

Not really. But Bob's supporters would like you to believe it.

During the aftermath of the quake the hype surrounding Bob has been, at different times, both nauseating and hilarious. At different times during the immediate aftermath of the quake, he has been variously portrayed as Superman, Mother Teresa, Winston Churchill and Dr Phil.

The New Zealand Herald and Paul Henry likened him to the right wing Rudy Giuliani - presently doing nothing for religious tolerance with some intemperate attacks on Islam.

Bob has basked in it all but, of course, 'he couldn't possibly comment' on such lofty comparisons. Ah, he's so humble..

Bob's backers have hailed him for his 'leadership abilities' but they have not actually explained what Bob has done that has been so exemplary.

From where I was sitting, Bob as Mayor, did what was required of him. He was the front person for a Civil Defence operation that swung into action independently of him. Are Bob's mates saying that no-one else could of done this?

But Bob has been all over the media for the past week, effectively hogging the spotlight. Bob talking to camera! Bob on the phone! Bob pointing at a map! Bob looking at wrecked buildings! It's been a regular Bobathon!

Indeed he was live on television again last night. This time he was on Prime News saying not very much. I switched to something else.

And all Bob ever really told me in the quake aftermath was to 'don't panic, stay safe and boil you're water for three minutes'.

And there are criticisms that Bob, not the most inclusive of Mayor's, neglected to keep his own councillors and community board members in the loop.

Some people won't like Saint Bob being criticised but he still needs to be held accountable for his misbehaviour over the past three years.

Bob and his supporters, of course, will try to keep the focus on quake-related activities and thus sideline the host of other issues that have dogged Bob during the election campaign and that saw Jim Anderton amass a nineteen percent lead over him, pre-quake

Bob's conservative politics are already coming to the fore.

Around 10,000 Cantabrians are calculated to have no household insurance and their lives have effectively been put on hold.

For days the Government fudged on whether they help out these unfortunate folk. Now its suggesting that each household will be judged on its individual merits. Gerry Brownlee went as far as to imply on Q+A yesterday that some householders may not be compensated because they had made a 'choice' to be uninsured.

While the Government was more than happy to provide a blanket bailout for investors in South Canterbury Finance, it looks very much that uninsured Cantabrians are not going to receive similar generosity from the Government. They are a 'low priority'.

Most of these households were uninsured not out of choice but because folk could not afford the big insurance bills.

Mayor Bob, who has talked a lot about 'our people' and how 'we are all in this together', has said nothing about these unfortunate folk.

If he was truly representing all Cantabrians then he would be demanding that the Government compensate all the uninsured householders and provide them with some certainty. But Bob is not going to run the risk of offending his good mate John Key - who was criticising Anderton over the weekend I notice.

Saint Bob clearly doesn't want to tarnish his halo with the grime of election campaigning.

In the end Bob still has to be judged on his record over the past three years and not on his media abilities over the past nine days.