Opinion: New Zealand’s PM John Key does Letterman’s Top 10
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We don’t get much chance on The Ticket to write about New Zealand politics. So we grab every opportunity.
Tonight is one. So, attention all overseas Ticket readers, especially in New Zealand.
Turns out President Barack Obama Monday night and then President Bill Clinton were just warm-up acts on ‘The Late Show With David Letterman.’
New Zealand’s Prime Minister John Key was in New York City today at the United Nations, like every other world leader except North Korea’s Kim Jong-TinyGuy.
So Key’s clever staff did a deal with the Letterman staff to provide his famous face doing the Letterman Top Ten List in return for slipping in some nice words promoting New Zealand’s beauty and tourism.
Classic late-night. Letterman gets some publicity and so does the good-natured Key, who can argue credibly back home it was to promote tourism.
In a brief conversation, the aging Dave learns that they do have mail now in New Zealand and that the island nation is in the Pacific Ocean. Sounds like Dave could use a visit himself.
Key does talk funny to those New Yorkers’ ears. However, the writers came up with some good lines:
No. 9 New Zealand has the loosest slots on the Pacific Rim.
No. 8 New Zealand only a convenient 20-hour flight away.
No. 7 Like England, only without the attitude.
No. 4 If you come in the next 30 days, I’ll pick you up at the airport myself.
No. 2 We drive on the left side of the road, like Britain and Lindsay Lohan.
We’ll leave No. 1 for you to see for yourself on the entire CBS video here.
-- Andrew Malcolm
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