While today's Angus Reid's poll is but one sampling and by no means a reflection of what reality might be were the Liberals and NDP ever to merge it is still a damning indictment of Michael Ignatieff. The results of the poll are embarrassing, with Ignatieff finding himself behind Jack Layton and Liberal MP Bob Rae as the people's preferred choice of leader, yet it is the continuing dialogue that this story generates that strips away at Ignatieff's credibility and hold over the Liberals.
The longer Michael Ignatieff tries to figure out where the wind is going to blow the more disadvantaged he makes himself. Fairly or unfairly he is seen as an indecisive leader. Until such time he declares what he wants to become of the Liberal Party he will be held prisoner by polls and headlines. Hapless supplicant is not what a leader of the Liberal Party is supposed to be.
If Michael Ignatieff doesn't either put a bullet in this unification dialogue or embrace it in some way he is going to be haunted by it all summer. This could be his carbon-tax albatross though it can't be forgotten he was an early adapter of that idea. Spending the next few months explaining his own party's challenges is much less advantageous to him than looking to skewer Tories like me.