Helen's gloat

From the Herald:

"Helen Clark, Labour leader for 14 1/2 years, hit back: "As the member is the fifth leader of the National Party I have dealt with, I would say there are rather more loyalty issues over there, including one from the person sitting next to him [deputy leader Bill English]."

Seeing off five National Party leaders sounds impressive, but is it:  Bolger defeated Clark in '96.  Dr Brash practically tied with her in '05, and Key's about to defeat her in '08.  Obviously she had to defeat someone to get into power, which was Shipley.  So that only leaves Bill English who she annihilated (unfortunately for English the voters were experimenting with MMP).

Overall Clark's party vote has hung around ~40% at best; hardly an earth shattering mandate.