Just like sports commentators trying to create interest in a slow game of test cricket, some parts of the Australian media have decided the Rudd Government is in crisis. Will the bowler break down? Will the opening batsman fail again? Is the captain past it? In both cases the purpose is to change viewer perceptions and expectations, to generate excitement and create interest. However, unlike the cricket commentators who cannot really influence the outcome of the game, media commentators work hard to shape public expectations, building a sense of impending and inevitable crisis.

Where is the real crisis? Have public affairs in Australia become so superficial that public discourse and policy is turned into a three ring circus? A new Government with a clear mandate has been thwarted at every turn by an opposition gazing fondly at the past. At virtually every election the false and hysterical paradigm created by some in the media is exposed as complete rubbish, and when this occurs the strident commentators go quiet for a while so that everyone forgets. At the next election voters will have to decide between a Government that has worked for major change, and an Opposition that has blocked. I have a good idea which will prevail once the rhetoric, cynicism, distortion and artifice is gone, and all the wishing in the world will not change this inevitability. In the meantime enjoy the circus and the thrill that the lion will escape or the trapeze artist will fall.

It's no wonder that so many lawyer become Polly's. Both can say one thing and believe another, with a click of the fingers, or the smell of money in the air do a complete about face without a hint of shame.

Kevin Rudd's great big tax on the filthy rich is a stroke of genius, the genius with which his policies saved thousands of jobs and Australia from recession. And what splendid entertainment is his rope a dope bout with Tony Abbott, the more publicity the better to counter the cacophony of mining quacks in the nation's interest albeit that Mr Rudd has no need to explain his record in full until the final two weeks before the election when all will become perfectly clear, along with Mr Abbott's agenda whatever that might be. Should Labor win Malcolm Turnbull will return and next up for the nation is the celebration of the rite of passage to a truly Australian republic. Ms Bishop should consider that a simple majority of the parliament can remove all women members and prohibit all women in Australia a vote before denigrating the determination for reform.

I don't care about the spin-doctoring, the broken promises, any of it really (as a Labor Stalwart be suprising if I did).

What I do care about (and what will, in the absence of something extraordinary to the contrary in the meantime, cause my vote not to count), is the way we are being treated. I don't like being talked down to, by anyone, anytime or anywhere.

This sanctimonious twit has the cheek to not only lecture us on why He's decided to ignore his election promises, but also why we should ignore it. You can treat the Australian Electorate a lot of ways and still get their vote, treat them like idiots and watch what happens (remember Latham?).

After his off the cuff condemnation of the IDF the other day, without even taking the time to examine the evidence, the question is there to be asked, is this how he will treat Australian Soldiers if they are ambushed in the same or a similar way? I mean, Australian Defence Force Members are engaged in these SPECIFIC operations, and those like them, daily.

How long before the brainwaves behind this debacle decide to use it against the West period? Will we see our Prime Minister simply hanging diggers out to dry, for cheap political points? Given the amount of thought he put into his response on 1 June, I'd have to suspect it is.

The man does not really stand "for" or "behind" anything, he cannot be nailed down because he is shifty as hell. Abbott on the other hand is a tool, but an honest one. If a decent spell in opposition is what the Labor party needs to realise the error of its ways, then so be it. I will not vote for them (I will vote, just not so it counts) and will not vote against them.

I encourage those from the ACTUAL (not the loony) Left to consider doing the same. I honestly wonder if it is time for the party to split, Rudd is so far to the right, Abbott has nowhere to stand.

Custard, what the f... are you on about- again. Oh, I remember a chance to promote Israeli victim-speak.

C J Morgan, "Additionally, it's about time we had a woman for PM :)"

Well, 'Hiya C J' and 'High fives to that', eh?

Fair dinkum, you never miss a chance to grovel. Stand on your feet man.

Besides, it is so very damn patronising of you to think that women would waste their ballot voting on gender lines. It didn't work for Hilary in the US and it didn't work for Anna Bligh, the Qld Premier, who sadly for Labor and Qld still managed to be dragged up clinging to Peter Beattie's coat tails.