My thoughts on health policy and Tony Abbott’s extraordinary 24 hours are posted at PollieGraph.
And the Lateline interview with Abbott and Gillard is now up online. Essential viewing!
Life, Culture and Politics from BrisVegas
Larvatus Prodeo was an Australian group blog which discussed politics, sociology, culture, life, religion and science from a left of centre perspective. more»
You’re being intentionally unpleasant, you just can’t help yourself.
Heh!
Spoze the Chaser will be following Abbott around with a barrow of bullshit for the next 4 weeks…
And WTF was HoWARd thinking with this absurdly long 6-week campaign after a year’s worth of the ‘pseudocampaign?’ Did Johnny think a long ‘official’ campaign would only present opptys for Labor to misstep?
What is Tony Jones doing? He was like a demented shark with a sniff of blood. Falling over himself to take Abbott down he ended up looking like a dill. I think he may have been rattled by Howard the night before and hasn’t yet regained his compusure. He ended up coming across as too eager and amateurish. I love Tony’s work but he could have done so much better than that.
Matt, there was only one dill on Lateline last night and it wasn’t either Jones or Gillard who both gave Abbott the touch up he deserved after his day of arrogant stuffups
I agree with Matt. Abbott had more than enough rope to hang himself without Jones being so eager. Mostly it was just his manner, but picking up on Gillard’s “rolling apology” line (though hard to resist as a neat rhetorical flourish) was too chummy.
Dunno why, but even having gone on record predicting Labor pick up 60%2PP and 98 seats that stuff still makes me nervous.
I believe that the marginal voters have ceased to apply the normal rules of sympathy to the Howard government.
We now observe the rules that govern the moral economy of the public execution.
Back in the day, folks used to turn out to watch the condemned suffer, but not too much and not to little. If the executioner killed the condemned too quickly, thus denying the crowd of the appropriate spectacle of suffering, the crowd rioted. If the executioner killed the condmened too slowly and with too much spectacular suffering, the crowd rioted.
One senses that the crowd of marginal voters assembled around the gibbet of federal electoral politics in 2007 will tolerate quite a deal of Liberal suffering before they attempt to lynch the Liberals’ tormentors.
Pass me the red-hot pincers.
You’re right Katz. My sensitivities aren’t really mine own, as it were – I’m worried that others out there might not enjoy the spectacle of Abbot’s public roasting.
Pish and posh!!! Surely when someone’s down is the most fun time to give ‘em a kick. I’m all turned around.
http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2007/10/31/2077872.htm
Above is the link to the handshake video that grace pettigrew, so astutely described, on a previous thread…….
“And that handshake, on the front page of the GG today, looks like a killer Latham moment to me. The doctor’s wives would have been watching”
One thing that struck me, was that Abbott kept on about how much harder it would for a Labor government to run 750 hospitals, as opposed to the one they have chosen.
I think it would actually be a lot easier, particularly with the abolition of the WorkChoices laws, just a single page putting the hospitals under the control of the Commonwealth Health Department – with the option of transferring state officials.
General cases are much easier to manage than special cases.
Now I wish I’d watched the Press Club debate. This means, I think, that the Libs have stuffed up three days of this week’s electoral cycle and Labor’s confusion about climate change might fade.
I just loved Abbott this week. Normally I can’t stand him. Fun. Fun. Fun!
And attacking Bernie. What was he thinking of, apart from Bernie being a union man? But I suppose that was enough to drive Abbott bonkers.
Hope this link from the Daily Terror works. Somebody seems to have a sense of humour on the one sided debate.
http://www.news.com.au/dailytelegraph/poll/display/1,22053,5031502-5001021-2,00.html
Try here to vote for Tony Abbot. Can only wait for a computerised voting system at an official election.
http://www.news.com.au/dailytelegraph/story/0,22049,22684232-5001021,00.html
I have it from impeccable sources (ex anticommunist infiltrator of the Labor club) the Tory HQ had planned all along to divert the Monk from the debate and the formidable Roxon. The plan was to have him miss the debate completely with some story about clocks not being reset for daylight saving as typical of state labor incompetence, The Monk obviously woke up to the plan and eventually made the debate. He seems to be on a mission to outdo Willis efforts in the 96 campaign. (Willis released a forged letter which sunk Keating).
I would like to point to the shining example of Bernie in his life and dedication to the welfare of his comrades. If you are opposed to the vilification of human right activists, practical action can be made here.
http://www.adfa.org.au/about_us.htm#membershipform
On Radio National this morning just after 8am, in campaign round-up discussion with Fran, Polliegraph got a big mention: correlation between interest-rate rises and firming of ALP support.