Bertie's spelling misstakes

I had a conversation, or rather a pub debate, with a friend over the weekend about the Irish Times lampooning Bertie for his failure to spell the words 'gover(n)ment' and 'sympat(h)ies' correctly in his message of condolence on the death of George Best. It went something like this.

Me: I think it's a joke that the Taoiseach can't spell government. I mean, it's a word that features fairly prominently in his job description, for God's sake. And he must read it 50 times a day in the papers.
My friend: Well, eye think it was a cheep shot. It's not the bee all and end all if ewe can't spell dat well.
Me: But he deals in the business of words as a politician. Surely it's important.
My friend: A.A Gill is dyslexic. He doesn't actually right his colm in the Sunday Times. He dictates it all every weak and he's still a grate righter.
Me: I don't think Bertie is dyslexic, though. He's just a crap speller.
My friend: There are udder forms of intelligence, dough. There are udder weighs of expressing yourself. Ewe can here him speak and he gets his pint across.

Fair enough. On the one hand, it was a cheap shot. On the other, it's good to laugh at our political leaders (They must spend enough time laughing at us."Oh, My God! They voted me in! Again!!Even after last time!!" Cue hysterical mirth for next five years) . People have died for the right to laugh at their political leaders. They've died for democracy and this is a component of democracy.

However, there is a touch of sneering in this attitude to Ahern. He's not a southside boy who went to a private school (unlike a fair chunk of the Times' readership). He's not from that elite we call 'Dublin 4' (even though it's a state of mind rather than a postcode). He has a Northside accent, he likes his GAA, his soccer, his pints; he plays on this, it's part of his everyman image. But he is a working class boy made good, whatever you think of his performance (not much, in my case). It wouldn't be ok to laugh at his accent if he was an immigrant but it's ok cos he's just a Northsider.

P.s. My friend is a perfectly good speller. That was just a cheep shot too.