If you snigger at the “budgie smugglers” innuendo, you’ve fallen for the media bullshit. Surf lifesavers wear speedos as part of their uniform.

Abbott is also a volunteer firefighter.

The only charity work Gillard seems to have done is dodgy off-the-books legal stuff for her union mates when she was at Slater & Gordon.

Above all else, Gillard is an oxymoron. This is a woman who once championed an ‘independent’ foreign policy (left-wing code for snubbing Washington) only to now march in lockstep with Uncle Sam in a way that would make Harold Holt proud. A woman who implemented a carbon tax after promising she would do no such thing. A childless, unmarried feminist who is to the right of Dick Cheney on gay marriage.

Perhaps the only place that Abbott is truly disliked is within Fairfax Newspapers?

And, of course, in my cab – by 100% of the Ocker businessmen I have talked with recently (at least a dozen).

The feeling appears to be the Coalition will win despite Abbott but they would win convincingly with Turnbull.

I agree with Mumble, the polls blogger at The Australian (and a not so closet leftie) that it’s not really about Western Sydney, they’re a symptom of the fact that Labor is losing support across Australia. In NSW in particular they have a real problem with the corruption allegations relating to the previous State Govt, so despite the new Liberal govt generally being seen as useless, at least they’re not (yet) corrupt.

The way that Julia is going about this is just wrong. She’s offering bribes, but they’re not good bribes. If you bribe someone with their own money, there’s really not much point in putting conditions on it, and if you’re in a bidding war it’s kind of important that your bid be higher than the last guy’s.

In short, I think she’s getting really bad advice on this stuff, and further, she’s not self aware or astute enough to notice that it’s bad advice. I think things are going bad for her, and her main hopes that are left (at least at the moment – a week is of course a long time in politics) are:
1. To make people dislike Abbott more than they already do. I think that’s hard, a lot of people already dislike him, the remainder will be hard to convince. People aren’t supporting him because they like him, they’re supporting him because he’s better than the alternative. (And I note that I kind of like Abbott, but I know I’m in the minority there)
2. To hope that the Libs implode through doing stupid shit. They have a history of doing that, but so far Abbott and co are running a really disciplined machine.

I think Labour are in trouble. A couple weeks back I had it as a 50/50 thing. At the moment I’d say the Libs are looking pretty safe. But they are capable of stuffing it up. I don’t think Julia is capable of taking it away from them, so it’s up to Tony to make or break. But a change of leader on either side would change the calculations.

If given the choice of four prime ministers, 39.2 per cent of voters would choose Mr Abbott, followed by Mr Rudd at 26 per cent, Malcolm Turnbull at 22.1 per cent, and Ms Gillard at just 13.2 per cent.

And yet the political pundits all say that Abbot is heartily disliked and that the Libs should go back to Malcolm Turnbull as leader.

Perhaps the only place that Abbott is truly disliked is within Fairfax Newspapers?  Not to worry, they will be defunct soon and they dislike Abbott all they like on their own time.

What is it about the left that they do “Hate” so well

Hate is ‘subjective and emotional’, and appears naturally when one is incapable of ‘objective and rational’.

Gillard is toast. Unless of course she can have people vote for her multiple times like Barry managed to.

What is it about the left that they do “Hate” so well ?