Simon Crean is a Labor hero, and he might have just saved the 2013 Federal election for Labor!
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Totally agree that the timing was awful... the day belonged to the victims of forced adoption and the focus belonged on them for the entire day.
The result of the spill was almost farcical... couldn't agree more... but it did highlight how much of this on-going chatter about a leadership challenge was a media beat up, and how much the oft quoted leakers were an insignificant minority.
To his credit Rudd has put an end to any credible leadership speculation. The media may chose to keep running polls that put Rudd up as an option as alternate PM, but they are now meaningless and will further erode the media's already low credibility. They may continue to run stories of numbers being counted and an imminent challenge, but who'll listen?
The public is switching off en masse from the mainstream media. A continuation of their current low standards will only speed their inevitable demise. There are many other voices out there who are telling a different story.. in the community, online, through social media, and even in some small sections of the mainstream media.
The Coalition are desperate to continue to keep the focus off themselves and Abbott. Pyne made the laughable claim that members of the parliamentary Labor party were texting him and flagging that the next Rudd leadership challenge was 71 days away. That's about as believable as his claim that he only caught up with James Ashby prior to the court case against Peter Slipper for a beer and a friendly chat about nothing in particular.
What the Coalition, the Right Wing 'Apolgensia', Peta Credlin, and Tony Abbott himself fear most is any attention on Abbott, on the lack of Coalition policy, and on the yet unexplored skeletons in the Coalition closet (the Ashby-Brough-Pyne affair, the Abbott-Jackson-Lawler-Thomson affair, the Abbott slush fund, the Coalition budget black hole).
Labor has a great story to tell. Labor has a plan for the future. Labor has an inspiring (if currently unpopular) leader. Labor will improve across the board in the run up to September.
The Coalition has... no ideas, an unloved and uninspiring leadership, Campbell Newman, two troubled governments in NT and Victoria, Tony Abbott, and a lot of explaining to do before September. They do have supporters with a lot of money (and a lot at stake), they do have large sections of the media on their side, and they do have a plan... to keep the truth hidden for another 6 months.
The Coalition has fired off almost all its ammunition. The last bullet in the chamber is to keep the attention on the government and the fallacy that they are not fit to govern.
The coming election is Labor's to win. This next Six moths will be the longest in Tony Abbott's political life... no surprise that the Coalition are now desperately calling for an early election.
I say Labor takes a leaf out of Keating's book... and we do Abbott slowly... or just let him do himself.
And I'm not the only one suggesting this is a new beginning for a renewed party.
Interesting times... all is not done and dusted.