If you are really unfortunate, the bad weeks can turn into bad fortnights or bad months, or, if you happen to be the current Leader of the Opposition, bad terms.
National Party leader Christopher Luxon appears on a hiding to nothing at the moment.
He seems to flail about in hapless fashion, desperately clutching at words and one-liners which he thinks are funny or cutting to deliver regularly and monotonously in Dalek-like fashion.
It sure makes one wonder who is advising Mr Luxon, what their advice is, and whether he is taking any notice of it.
Unfortunately, none of us are very good at accepting advice — unless it is confirming the course of action we already wanted to take.
Somehow, Mr Luxon has survived as National leader since assuming the role in November 2021, making him the party’s fifth leader in that many years.
His "reset" dream team deputy, Nicola Willis, who has also lasted 18 months, is not the most inspiring of politicians either, appearing to operate by being a source of grumbling and a constant presence whispering in the boss’ ear.
Being in opposition is no easy task. There are few wins to cheer and build on. It is overwhelmingly a negative job, looking for the chinks in the government’s announcements and policies to prise wide open.
But the years in the wilderness should also be useful ones, if viewed positively and handled constructively.
They offer a chance to build up a formidable group of spokespeople and develop sound and progressive policy alternatives.
National does not seem to be doing that. Their followers and potential supporters are still largely in the dark about what the party of Mr Luxon believes in and what it would do, in any kind of detail, if elected to power in October.
The only issue that is consistently raised is tax.
It started on Sunday evening with the release of the latest political poll and was still rumbling along yesterday with the analysis and discussion of Thursday afternoon’s Budget.
According to the latest Newshub-Reid political poll, Labour and National are pretty much level pegging, with 35.9% and 35.3% support respectively from those surveyed.
That was a drop from both parties, of 2.1 and 1.3 percentage points respectively.
While Prime Minister Chris Hipkins’ popularity is up 3.8 points to 23.4%, Mr Luxon’s popularity has slumped 2.4 points to 16.4%.
As the poll pointed out, Mr Luxon’s predecessor, Judith Collins, had 18.4% support before the landslide against National at the last election.
What is more damaging for Mr Luxon is the poll’s finding that while 49.9% of respondents think Mr Hipkins is in touch with the problems confronting the country, and 35.6% say he is out of touch, the numbers are almost reversed for Mr Luxon, with 47.0% saying he is out of touch with them and 37.2% saying he knows what’s going on.
At Question Time in the House on Wednesday, Mr Luxon asked the prime minister the ill-advised and poorly judged "is he satisfied with the outcomes taxpayers are getting from the increase in government spending, from $76 billion in 2017 to $129 billion in the current financial year?".
That gave Mr Hipkins carte blanche to spend two minutes reading a list of achievements which made the Opposition look foolish.
Finally, Mr Luxon’s declaration that National would add back on the $5 prescription charge scrapped in Thursday’s Budget comes across as asinine and knee-jerk in the extreme, mean-spirited, childishly petty and pathetic.
How on earth would a move like that be a vote-winner? Whose loony idea was it?
How could anyone think a National government really cares about the sick, the elderly, and those on lower incomes after such a stupid statement?
Mr Luxon can clearly afford the $5 charge for both painkillers and antibiotics after shooting himself yet again in the foot.
