A lot of what's mentioned in the article is delivered as particularly shady, which some of it definitely is, however i would chalk up the remainder as necessary political strategy. When news outlets jump on any blunder (sometimes even something as simple as a stutter [1]), it really forces politicians overanalyze and stress about stupid things (such as the 3 points thing).
[1] http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2012/dec/06/ed-balls-won...