Election 2010
Labor will get back, possibly with a slightly reduced majority but if Abbot puts his foot in it again or fails to lock Eric Abetz in a dark well sealed room (perhaps with some nazi memorabilia to make him comfortable) for the duration of the campaign the Tories could do even worse.
This isn't to say that Julia and Co are the answer to anyones prayers but rather that the punters won't wake up to them quickly enough. Of course letting them back without any sort of punishment only reinforces their inclination to abandon all pretense of leadership in favour of poll driven populism. I remember one of our truly great leaders saying that leadership was not about tripping over TV leads in shopping centres, it wasn't about being popular it was about being right. He put his faith in the common sense and intelligence of the Australian electorate and look where that got him.
Julia's Labor party are putting their faith in the common sense and intelligence of the elctorate too or more correctly the absence thereof.
I hope plenty of people do punish them though by voting first for the Greens in the Reps and the Senate. People who vote green are smart enough to direct their preferences toward the overall outcome that they want and a big primary vote will make their preferences even more desirable next time. We also have a small chance of getting a Greens senator up in NSW with Labor preferences.
There are three leaders in this election. Two represent the political equivalent of Woolworths and Coles and the third represents leadership based on principled ideas rather than opinion polls. More power to Bob Brown I say. He's a national treasure
It's going to be a very long five weeks and Julia is making it very painful by using the dreadful expression "moving forward" several times a minute. I hated the phrase before it became the slogan so it looks like the CDs are going to get a big workout in the car because listening to the radio could provoke outbursts of rage.
I'll have more to say abut the Bob and Blanche saga when I stop throwing up.