Rodney Hide on "Dancing with the Stars"

One of the worst kept secrets in Wellington is now out - Rodney Hide is competing on "Dancing with the Stars".

I've seen people have fallen into categories when talking about it:

Those who think Rodney is doing it for the publicity

Well this is probably true - Rodney wouldn't do it unless he thought it would help raise his profile, and that of ACTs. It doesn't hurt that it will show a different side to Rodney other than the 'Perkbuster' who makes the Government account for every dollar they spend on one of the highest rating shows on TV.

Those who think Rodney is mad for doing it

This is also true - he could make a fool of himself by tripping up over his feet. But as the Letter said yesterday "The average viewer who has not seen Rodney since election night will be stunned at his transformation." He is looking very much trimmer and slimmer than a year ago. And I can assure you Rodney will have done so the hard way - he's that type of guy who challenges himself to reach his goals. And Rodney's own blog post about it makes interesting reading about what motivates Rodney.

Those that think Rodney is desparate for doing it

There's some grain of truth in this - but if you keep doing the same thing then you can only get the same results. And competing in "Dancing with the Stars" can't do any harm to ACTs vote.

And those who think 'good on ya, Rodney'.

Yep - that's me. I started learning to dance about four years ago and even after a handful of lessons it surprising how good you can get. Enough to get everyone in the nightclub thinking how cool you look, even though you're a complete amatuer.