Moreover, the Coalition and Labor are equal in the primary vote, with Labor leading by 53 per cent to 47 per cent after preferences. This equates with Kevin Rudd’s winning margin over John Howard in 2007.
Tony Abbott’s People Skills are demonstrated by the fact that he has raised his party to the level of popularity it enjoyed under John Howard – when they lost government and he lost his seat.
Extra classic:
It is customary for the gap between the parties to narrow close to an election.
Teh Narrowing!!1! [NB: This may be a registered trademark of Dennis Shanahan.]
Most classic of all:
But Oakes, like many of his colleagues, ignored one of the central messages of So Greek. When Savva arrived at the press gallery in the early 1970s, “the overwhelming majority of gallery journalists were Labor supporters” – as she was at the time. According to Savva, not much has changed since, except “the Greens have peeled some Labor sympathisers”. She writes: “In the gallery itself conservatives are few, and often reluctant to out themselves.”
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Abbott may not yet have the popularity to unseat Rudd at a general election but there is no denying that his leadership has dragged the Coalition up from a totally unelectable position to one in which they have a fighting chance.
Altough Henderson is transparently projecting when he talks of Abbott’s people skills being better than the Press Gallery lets on . . .
mondo: Abbott’s leadership and having the rightwingers in charge has stopped all the backbiting and infighting (now they’re in charge there is no reason to snipe), which has taken the media focus off them and is making them look more like an opposition.
Still with the “conservatives are persecuted” theory. Despite rightwingers dominating the MSM.
Careful Tobias, you’ll be on a list of Gerard’s somewhere of ‘communist sympathisers’, along with Stephanie Alexander and other loony lefties.
I would regard that as one of the greatest achievements in my life.
Brings to mind the Washington Post’s conservative columnist David Broder from Feb 2007:
“It may seem perverse to suggest that, at the very moment the House of Representatives is repudiating his policy in Iraq, President Bush is poised for a political comeback…”
Did Gerry write this before or after he nodded off after Play School?
Before or after he nodded off into Stephanie Alexander’s subversive borscht?
The same borscht she prepared for the dinner celebrating Manning Clarke’s receipt of the Stalin Medal sans Frontieres?
(He really is a silly ole lovable duffer.)
Jeez. I thought Gerard was a student of history. This theory of ‘narrowing’ is rubbish. What actually happens is that as the election gets nearer, there is usually a swing back to the incumbent. You go back as far as you like and you will see that the government, regardless of party, usually picks up a lot of ground in the last few weeks of an election campaign. Australians are conservative. They need a good reason to change government. I think we’ve seen the best of Tony Abbott. Gerard would also know that there hasn’t been a single term government in Australia since the 30s. Abbott has no chance of winning.
However, what Rudd most definitely does not want is for there to be a perception that his re-election is a fait-accompli. That almost saw Bob Hawke off in 1984. What he needs is for people to start thinking about Tony Abbott PM. That should focus the mind of most voters.
I’m not saying Rudd is so Machiavellian as to have planned it, but this far out it’s certainly in his interest for the Liberals to look at least a little competitive.
Gerard says;
[When Savva arrived at the press gallery in the early 1970s, “the overwhelming majority of gallery journalists were Labor supporters” – as she was at the time.}
Ms Savva may have been verballed here by Gerard. My recollection from her interview was that she said something much gentler, along the lines of “..my leanings were slightly left of centre…’.
I raised my eyebrows at that, because her early writings for Brisbane’s now defunct Daily Sun were the most ridiculous right wing boosterism one could read in Australia at that time. Think Planet Janet, or the odious Devine. Seriously, can you imagine Costello hiring her if she wasn’t an experienced and proven winged monkey?