Malcolm, what a rambling diatribe you have presented to we loyal OLO readers today. And OLO subbies, what a grossly misleading header.

That said, Rudd's lack of popularity may simply be a reflection of his capacity to keep public servants on their toes, accountable to Government etc. Being effective does not always make one popular.

I do agree about Tony Oakeshott though - what a strange one he is. At least Bob Katter is a man of his (well publicised) convictions regardless of what the Coast hugging literati think of him and his ideas. And Tony Windsor, well he's just a wily old cow cocky.

Election 2012 is my bet. Any takers?

Makes one feel for Julia, with mad egomaniacs to the left, mad egomaniacs to the right, and probably a few behind - no doubt with tridents.

bitey, Rudd is unpopular for several reasons; one being he is not effective, and another being he significantly lacks diplomacy.

McReal has it in one.

What a debacle and what at what cost. There has to be a better way of forming governments than these heavily geared two-party systems with all their infighting and factional woes.

Poor old DFAT are probably already crying into their chai lattes.

Some stupid decisions in this cabinet reshuffle and has nothing to do with merit in many cases.

bitey, Rudd did keep the public servants on their toes but it was not in the interests of efficiency with more time/money spent on window dressing at the cost of operational demands. Not entirely his fault alone - much of it the fault of empire building bullies and bureaucratic despots within the APS. But one tends to feed the other.

"He was political editor of The Australian, based in Canberra, from 1977-81 and a director of News Ltd from 1991-2007." Says it all!!

Why did Colless call this "Keeping Rudd out of Gillard's hair" when all he wanted to do was have a 'liberal' spray at the Independent Rob Oakshott and beef up the political obstructionist tactics of the embittered Coalition.

I do sometimes wonder why OLO encourages such wasteful opinion.

An excellent article Malcolm. See how the luvvies are upset to be confronted with facts? That's always a good sign.

Rudd's narcissism continues unabated, yet people like bitey and gazzaboy feel obliged to defend him and blame the messenger. Worse, they both want you silenced! The left's first inclination is always to totalitarian domination.

I don't comment often but peruse a bit. I am in complete agreement with the article by Malcolm. It's true and accurate and if Labor/Green supporters don't like it, so what? They are delusional.

A disorganised Labor Party in with the Greens and will not work. Kevin Rudd in the background still has power over this government, which, no doubt, he loathes. He only has to to walk and the government will fall over. I don't believe he will stay out of Julia's hair no matter how far away he is.

There will be another election soon and the Party who received the majority of the votes this time will actually win the next one.