The Australian and its splendidly tonsorial political editor Dennis Shanahan are almost back to the sort of peak form that made the combination a byword for polling-based fantasy through the long months of mid 2007. Todays’ P1 banner “Turnbull puts life into the Libs” is a cracker, based on polling that shows an 8% pump for Malcolm over Nelson’s sorry preferred PM figure. But read the story, stunning:
“Malcolm Turnbull’s election as Liberal leader has dramatically cut Kevin Rudd’s leadership advantages and restored the Coalition’s credentials as economic managers at a time of global financial crisis.”
Wow. It’s not until the seventh paragraph that we learn that despite this romping return to form “the primary vote did not change outside the margin of error”. It isn’t until midway through the piece that we discover the vast bulk of voters – 61% – who think Malcolm Turnbull is an arrogant tosser.
Great to have Shanahan back in the game.
4 Comments
I think it’s cute… poor bugger has seemed so lost lately.
Christ, it’s been sad to watch his column inches disappear, you can almost ‘feel’ him sitting awake at night on the net, sqeezing the cask bladder for those last tiny drops, contemplating that one day soon he might need to use it as a pillow .
Wishing he was Glenn Milne(who’s been using them as pillows for years)
And it’s great to see the voters at last giving due credit to the Liberal Party’s natural advantage in economic management. That will please Dennis too.
A curious change in the better economic manager figures considering Swan was beating Turnbull in the better Treasurer stakes. How does that work?
I think that the arrogant bit wouldn’t be so bad if it wasn’t coupled with the least trustworthy vote as well – now there is a dangerous combination waitig to be exploited. Reinforce the untrustworthy aspect and the poor guy will have no way up for air.
I think of Milne’s work like flatulence, some smell more than others. And I think Dennis might be under pressure on his KPIs.
However one bad/worse poll and I think Costello-ism will return.
There was an eerie sense of deja vu about how a Turnbull ‘bounce’ was made out of nothing. Turnbull’s Preferred PM was similar to Crean’s which Mr Shanahan used to have very strong views about.
When you own something, you can use it as you like.