Reflections on the Miracle of Democracy at Work in the Greatest Nation on Earth

Essential Research: 61-39

The latest two-week rolling online panel survey by Essential Research shows federal Labor retaining its record 61-39 lead from last week, although the preferred prime minister gap has narrowed from 41 per cent to 35 per cent. Tellingly, the government’s handling of the financial crisis has the favour of 63 per cent of respondents against 18 per cent disapproving, compared with 31 per cent and 35 per cent for the opposition. Also covered are attitudes to the US presidential race.

861 Comments

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  1. 651
    Cuppa
    Posted Sunday, November 9, 2008 at 10:33 pm | Permalink

    Rupert Murdoch will be making across-the-board cuts to his Australian operations. With any luck, Pies will be relegated to lunch room duties.

  2. 652
    ShowsOn
    Posted Sunday, November 9, 2008 at 10:41 pm | Permalink

    Virtually every single news outlet in the country has gone this way.

    Yeah very true. But the fact The Oz has gone for it as well means they can’t be considered much better than the News Ltd tabloids.

    I guess it is the best way to get hits, which is what pays the bills.

    It’s not all bad though, Megalogenis is worth reading still.

    People generally like to listen to people who think like they think so they can think that the way they think is the way people should think. :-)

    It is quite sad though, because it means people have lost the sense of how hard it actually is to properly understand something. The brash judgment is considered superior to the well considered opinion.

    It doesn’t help when people who are meant to know things, like about running the world economy, have just proven that actually had NFI.

  3. 653
    ShowsOn
    Posted Sunday, November 9, 2008 at 10:42 pm | Permalink

    Rupert Murdoch will be making across-the-board cuts to his Australian operations. With any luck, Pies will be relegated to lunch room duties.

    Did he announce this in one of his speeches?

    They could lose half their staff and it wouldn’t matter.

  4. 654
    Posted Sunday, November 9, 2008 at 10:43 pm | Permalink

    People generally like to listen to people who think like they think so they can think that the way they think is the way people should think.

    I should add it’s also why blogs are rarely too diverse in the views.

    Bolt’s blog is just a shock blog; ditto Piers’. Those who can’t be bothered ringing up Alan Jones, go on to Bolt’s blog and are comforted by what they read, and thus have no problems with what they right.

    And to be honest, it’s why PB leans to the left. Sure there are some who go on blogs for a fight, or who genuinely love a hot debate, but just as I wouldn’t join a conversation at a pub full of young Liberals, I stay clear of right wing blogs, and go for the more friendly crowd here.

  5. 655
    Posted Sunday, November 9, 2008 at 10:47 pm | Permalink

    go on to Bolt’s blog and are comforted by what they read, and thus have no problems with what they right.

    whoops Freudian slip perhaps? :-) I meant, of course “what they write”.

  6. 656
    ltep
    Posted Sunday, November 9, 2008 at 10:47 pm | Permalink

    Grog, I recently visited a right wing blog I’d posted at once or twice a while ago and went to post something new only to find I had been banned.

    I think many bloggers are violently opposed to having people disagree with them, which sort of doesn’t make sense to me at all.

  7. 657
    Centre
    Posted Sunday, November 9, 2008 at 10:49 pm | Permalink

    I think the right wing bloggers would be welcome here.

    Mate, bring it on!

  8. 658
    Posted Sunday, November 9, 2008 at 10:51 pm | Permalink

    which one? to be honest ltep I don’t know any right wing blogs besides the bolt and piers’ ones.

    I think many bloggers are violently opposed to having people disagree with them, which sort of doesn’t make sense to me at all.

    I have no problems with people who disagree with me, I just don’t like the ones who are violently opposed to me!

  9. 659
    Cuppa
    Posted Sunday, November 9, 2008 at 10:52 pm | Permalink

    ShowsOn at 653

    Murdoch:

    "You will see even leaner operations in both those places (Australia and Britain)," he said during the group's first-quarter results briefing. "I'm not prepared to say how many people. I know, but I don't want the headlines about it … but expect across-the-board cuts."

    The Age, 7 November 2008
    http://www.theage.com.au/national/murdoch-to-slash-jobs-at-papers-nine-sheds-staff-20081106-5jdc.html

  10. 660
    ltep
    Posted Sunday, November 9, 2008 at 10:56 pm | Permalink

    Grog, it’s called A Western Heart ( http://awesternheart.blogspot.com/ ) It’s probably not a good idea reading blogs like that. It can be a little depressing.

  11. 661
    ShowsOn
    Posted Sunday, November 9, 2008 at 10:56 pm | Permalink

    ShowsOn at 653

    Murdoch:

    Wow, nice to know it isn’t only the Fairfax press that is going down the drain.

  12. 662
    Posted Sunday, November 9, 2008 at 10:59 pm | Permalink

    660 thanks ltep, I’ll be sure to put it on my blocked list! Just read one post – “President B. Hussein Reveals his inner a**”

    No point reading any further…

  13. 663
    Dario
    Posted Sunday, November 9, 2008 at 11:03 pm | Permalink

    I think the right wing bloggers would be welcome here

    We went out of our way to get GP reinstated, so I think the evidence is there to support that

  14. 664
    ShowsOn
    Posted Sunday, November 9, 2008 at 11:03 pm | Permalink

    We went out of our way to get GP reinstated, so I think the evidence is there to support that

    Wow, I never knew he was banned!

  15. 665
    Judith Barnes
    Posted Sunday, November 9, 2008 at 11:05 pm | Permalink

    you guys have no idea just how long i lurked on the outskirts of this blog before i was game to post, that was untill i thought bugga it i’m missing all the fun, now you cant shut me up.

  16. 666
    Cuppa
    Posted Sunday, November 9, 2008 at 11:09 pm | Permalink

    This blog could quite easily have become right-leaning, had the election result been different. Steven Kaye, Nostradamus (and others who I’ve forgotten) would still be filling it with gloating “Told ya so’s!”

  17. 667
    Posted Sunday, November 9, 2008 at 11:09 pm | Permalink

    Wow, I never knew he was banned!

    It was short but sweet :-)

    Look, I wasn’t saying we’re all bleeding heart lefties here – and thank God we’re not.

    With regard to the views expressed on blogs though, it always comes back to the owner/moderator. William’s posts are factual rather than opinion, so there’s no urge to abuse as you find on other sites.

    Props to William for keeping things pretty much on the level. (suck up over – I did afterall get my first snip last week, freakin rule #2!)

  18. 668
    Centre
    Posted Sunday, November 9, 2008 at 11:11 pm | Permalink

    News Ltd closed at around $12.40 a share last Friday.

    10 years ago they were trading at $14 and as high as $28 at the peak of the dot com boom. However the $12.40 includes a two for one share split therefore their shares are worth $6.20 compared to 10 years ago. Also their yields are among the lowest on the ASX. This is a company that should not be anywhere near as affected by the GFC as finance stocks.

    :)

  19. 669
    Posted Sunday, November 9, 2008 at 11:12 pm | Permalink

    you guys have no idea just how long i lurked on the outskirts of this blog

    Same here… I can’t even remember how I got here. Most likely someone linked it in either Matt Price’s blog or Blogocracy. Read for a bit, then dived in mid-way through last year.

  20. 670
    Posted Sunday, November 9, 2008 at 11:14 pm | Permalink

    Steven Kaye, Nostradamus (and others who I’ve forgotten) would still be filling it with gloating “Told ya so’s!”

    A few have been lost along the way…

    Wonder what ever happened to ‘voter boy across the water’ he was in the finance industry in England from memory – would’ve been good to hear some inside info on the GFC

  21. 671
    Centre
    Posted Sunday, November 9, 2008 at 11:17 pm | Permalink

    Oh no, GP was OK. Bring back Nostraldamus and Steven Kaye I reckon.

    What about the So Says Snoopy guy?

  22. 672
    Cuppa
    Posted Sunday, November 9, 2008 at 11:19 pm | Permalink

    Cedric Conan? Pretty sure William banned him.

  23. 673
    Posted Sunday, November 9, 2008 at 11:22 pm | Permalink

    I did, and I received weird emails for some time afterwards for my efforts. Snoopy/Moose has been banned twice, most recently after returning under a new name during the WA campaign. You occasionally seem him on the News Ltd blogs. Banned Steven Kaye as well. Just plain didn’t like the guy, and it was my ball back then to play with as I saw fit. Nostradamus was never banned – in fact, I don’t think he ever posted here much, he was mostly one of Palmer’s.

  24. 674
    ShowsOn
    Posted Sunday, November 9, 2008 at 11:32 pm | Permalink

    Cedric Conan? Pretty sure William banned him.

    Didn’t Cedric have a female sock puppet name as well? It was the same sort of “so says” posts, but from a female name.

  25. 675
    Cuppa
    Posted Sunday, November 9, 2008 at 11:37 pm | Permalink

    The “female” RWer I remember had a name I’ve forgotten, the one who wrote in simplistic couplets such as:

    Liberals stand for opportunity; Labor stands for desperation

  26. 676
    Posted Sunday, November 9, 2008 at 11:40 pm | Permalink

    Was just having a look at some of the post frm the archives (didn’t realise they covered the ones from the old site). Geez, we were a nerotic bunch last year!

    Lot of names no longer with us.

    For a quick memory lane trip, this was the blog that Samantha Maiden wrote about in The Oz (Newpoll 53-47! the horror!!!)
    http://blogs.crikey.com.au/pollbludger/2007/11/05/newspoll-53-47/comment-page-1/#comments

  27. 677
    Posted Sunday, November 9, 2008 at 11:41 pm | Permalink

    Liberals stand for opportunity; Labor stands for desperation

    Oh geez, it comes flooding back to me…. thought that memory was gone for good!

  28. 678
    Fulvio Sammut
    Posted Sunday, November 9, 2008 at 11:41 pm | Permalink

    A year later and we’re still talking about him!

    Give the man his due, he was a feather ruffler of the first order.

    I miss him.

  29. 679
    Bird of paradox
    Posted Sunday, November 9, 2008 at 11:42 pm | Permalink

    Same here… I can’t even remember how I got here. Most likely someone linked it in either Matt Price’s blog or Blogocracy. Read for a bit, then dived in mid-way through last year.

    Similar here, except I came in from Wikipedia – whoever writes the election articles on Wiki (and particularly the individual electorate articles) uses PB as a reference a whole lot, so I ended up linking straight to here. I lurked for ages in the comments bit because I didn’t want to get involved with the 1000 post US threads. ;)

  30. 680
    ShowsOn
    Posted Sunday, November 9, 2008 at 11:42 pm | Permalink

    For a quick memory lane trip, this was the blog that Samantha Maiden wrote about in The Oz (Newpoll 53-47! the horror!!!)

    Can’t see any posts from me. Hopefully that means I was out letterboxing!

  31. 681
    Posted Sunday, November 9, 2008 at 11:44 pm | Permalink

    The “female” RWer I remember had a name I’ve forgotten

    It was “tabitha”

    Eg:

    Posted Tuesday, November 6, 2007 at 12:41 pm | Permalink
    Labor is false at heart and craves power over people
    Liberal is true at heart and serves the people

  32. 682
    ShowsOn
    Posted Sunday, November 9, 2008 at 11:46 pm | Permalink

    It was “tabitha”

    Oh dear, I didn’t need to be reminded.

  33. 683
    Posted Sunday, November 9, 2008 at 11:46 pm | Permalink

    ShowsOn at 674: I believe you are thinking of Tabitha, and you are misidentifying the hand behind the sock puppet.

  34. 684
    Posted Sunday, November 9, 2008 at 11:47 pm | Permalink

    Can’t see any posts from me. Hopefully that means I was out letterboxing!

    Found you on post 1107 ShowsOn..

    Anyhoo this has become too introspective for me (and yes I know I started it).

    Night all.

  35. 685
    Frank Calabrese
    Posted Sunday, November 9, 2008 at 11:49 pm | Permalink

    The “female” RWer I remember had a name I’ve forgotten, the one who wrote in simplistic couplets such as:

    Liberals stand for opportunity; Labor stands for desperation

    That was Tabitha :-)

  36. 686
    scorpio
    Posted Sunday, November 9, 2008 at 11:53 pm | Permalink

    William,

    Come-on now, you can satisfy our curiosity now can’t you?

    The unseen hand didn’t belong to you, did it? You weren’t just stirring the pot eh?

  37. 687
    ShowsOn
    Posted Sunday, November 9, 2008 at 11:54 pm | Permalink

    and you are misidentifying the hand behind the sock puppet.

    You know who it was?

  38. 688
    Posted Sunday, November 9, 2008 at 11:58 pm | Permalink

    It was Adam Smith’s “invisible hand”.

  39. 689
    Fulvio Sammut
    Posted Sunday, November 9, 2008 at 11:59 pm | Permalink

    I believe I read a half hearted mea culpa from the puppet master after Willim threatened to out him …

  40. 690
    scorpio
    Posted Sunday, November 9, 2008 at 11:59 pm | Permalink

    Steven Kaye & friends were great at reading the tealeaves weren’t they. Compare this with the current reality.

    It’s all falling into place. With the rate rise on Wednesday, the PM will be able to hammer home his message that the economy is facing inflationary pressures resulting from the drought, soaring oil prices and booming growth (business confidence and investment are at 13 year highs) and that Krudd and his band of cretins and goons will not be able to manage them properly, further driving up rates. The good employment news on Thursday will only underscore his theme.

  41. 691
    ShowsOn
    Posted Monday, November 10, 2008 at 12:04 am | Permalink

    The world has changed so much since then…

  42. 692
    Posted Monday, November 10, 2008 at 12:05 am | Permalink

    I don’t recall that, FS – you might be thinking of another sock puppet.

  43. 693
    ShowsOn
    Posted Monday, November 10, 2008 at 12:08 am | Permalink

    I remember ESJ going on about getting a blog at The Australian. Did that ever happen, or was he just crapping on?

  44. 694
    Fulvio Sammut
    Posted Monday, November 10, 2008 at 12:08 am | Permalink

    Yes I could be, William … that’s why I didn’t name him.

  45. 695
    Oz
    Posted Monday, November 10, 2008 at 12:14 am | Permalink

    I remember ESJ going on about getting a blog at The Australian.

    Would you really be surprised if even GP got a blog at The Australian?

  46. 696
    Fulvio Sammut
    Posted Monday, November 10, 2008 at 12:15 am | Permalink

    ESJ never crapped on about factual issues. I believe he had the offer but things never worked out.

    A pity, as he would have stood out as a moderate intellectual against the current backdrop of right wing lunatics on that paper.

  47. 697
    scorpio
    Posted Monday, November 10, 2008 at 12:15 am | Permalink

    A couple more blogs that would have to be considered right wing. Tim Blair’s and JA’s at the Oz.

    Some of their posters and TPD could benefit from this.

    Researchers in Japan say they have created functioning human brain tissue from stem cells for the first time.

    http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2008/11/07/2413243.htm?section=world

  48. 698
    ShowsOn
    Posted Monday, November 10, 2008 at 12:19 am | Permalink

    ESJ never crapped on about factual issues. I believe he had the offer but things never worked out.

    Ahh interesting.

    Researchers in Japan say they have created functioning human brain tissue from stem cells for the first time.

    Have they been able to make souls yet?

    JOKE! :D

  49. 699
    Fulvio Sammut
    Posted Monday, November 10, 2008 at 12:22 am | Permalink

    Only if they experiment with stem cells from an ass….

  50. 700
    scorpio
    Posted Monday, November 10, 2008 at 12:32 am | Permalink

    I would strongly suspect that CO would have to be in Uncle Rupert’s sights at the moment. She might try for a job with Malcolm.

    Latest blogs;
    Jogging is bad for you………………0 comments
    Asset Strip…………………………..1 comment
    Reasons to play computer games…2 comments
    It’s cool to be an American………..8 comments

    Fantastic, intellectually stimulating subjects which are really arousing great enthusiasm with the readership. Yes??? Errr, probably not.

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