Here it comes. Not the first bounce for Howard and it wont be the last. Tomorrow's newspoll is tipped to halve the gap with the ALP. Should steady the nerves a bit partly because it's a welcome chance and partly because it just shows how volatile and unreliable the polling is. I wonder whether this bounce is due to Rudd's premature campaign launch over the weekend where he announced nothing but the creation of another review panel and used virtually the same slogan as Keating's last doomed election campaign. 'New Leadership' = Old Labour.
Prior to this news we had a great day in parliament which included Howard's best line of the year to date.
Julia Gillard accused howard of not calling the election so he could extend the taxpayer funded add blistz on TV. HOward responded by saying no-one in the ALP was in NSW over XMAS obviously because you could not switch on the TV without hearing a message about Morris Iemma's plans for the state. Paraphrased, Howard delivered the pearler "At one stage Cricket Australia was thinking of introducing 4 ball overs so that there would be time for all the adds. Talk about hypocrisy. Give us a break." Howzat.?!! The Bradman of politics strikes again. THe Libs have a monopoly on humour in politics now that Beatie has beat it, but that's not what the ABC want's you to think.
If you were watching ABC news and the 7:30 report you will have missed it. They showed the labour question and the last bit of the response about hypocrisy, which sounded lame and puffed up on it's own.
You got the scoop here folks on Australia Rising, the ABC's Micheal Brissenden has the worst Jouralistic ethics on TV. He misrepresents what people say in his 'editing'. What's worse. He had a great soundbite and buried it. Where's the showbiz factor? YOu wont see this brought up on Media Watch, just like they ignored his dubious handling of the Costello leadership chat dinner.
Keep holding off on the election JOhn. Rudd is powerless to do anything about it but clock up more boring condescending smuggness in front of the cameras while you guys crack the jokes. His impotence is reminding him and everyone else that he's not the Prime Minister until elected constitutionally, and of the arrogance of his usurpation of Howard's constitutional role at APEC on the basis of unreliable and transient polls.
Do ex-mandarins bounce, or go 'splat' when they fall from a great height?
