I dunno. It's not a normal election to pick a *politician* for the Dail. We tend to act funny when voting for *Ireland*. Look at the last 3 presidents*, and divorce, gay rights & abortion. Secretly most parents would probably be horrified if their own kid turned out to be gay or had an abortion. But when we vote for *Ireland*, we vote in ways than might not be our core beliefs.
So if you're an 'on-the-fence' FF/FG voter and it's a choice between the government candidate and SF, you might just go with McGuiness (for the national good). She talks nice and dresses well. She's European but also rural Ireland (married to a sheep farmer). There's probably some GAA connection there as well. She won't embarrass us on the world stage. A SF president might go off script (like Michael D Higgins) and start moaning about political stuff like Gaza and other hot spots around the world (like Irish re-unification

)
* I know Michael D was an experienced politician but he's played the poet-bard-professor thing to perfection.