Sorry those of you crying about the"stabbing of Rudd in the back" but he was just not getting the message across and had no hope of changing his style or method of doing things. He was a control freak like Howard.
At least Labor told him so, offered him the opportunity to put his name up and he did not and Gillard was chosen.That is the way it should be and was done.
Remember when suggested he should hand over to Costelloe,Howard stated he would step down when the party wanted him to and when they did he asked Janet and the kids (who were the party he was referring to) and stayed on and not only lost government but thankfully his own seat.
To elect Abbott is to elect the "love child of Howard and Bronwyn Bishop"- then you will have a real true blue, right wing, neo liberal fascist. And God help us all.

you can try to spin the backstabbing of PM Rudd however you like, but you just add to the legend of ALP spin

the one liner for PM Julia Gillard in the history books, will be "she backstabbed a man she had only just finished pledging allegiance to"

I don't like Rudd, never have, but to try to pass it off as politically essential is just underlining the state of ALP politics

"Whatever it takes"

The ALP is so power hungry, they would backstab the leader who led them out of the wilderness

"Sorry those of you crying about the"stabbing of Rudd in the back" but he was just not getting the message across"

Hah !

He was getting the message across too well, you mean. "I may be naked, but I am your effin' Emperor. Et tu, Gloriana".

Kellie, maybe - just maybe - we are actually capable of judging Julia Gillard by something other than her gender?

You know, like policies, record, etc.? Silly things like that.

I mean, c'mon, these "women's studies" gender politics are so 80s.

I couldn't give a hoot if our PM is a man or a woman. I look for competence in a person who gets put in place to control us. I'm afraid.Julia Gillard just doesn't appear to be from this planet when it comes to rhetoric in relation to everyday life. I have been in the Public Service for some years & I have had mainly female bosses who without exception have proven to be totally absorbed in their own importance & proven utterly unsuitable & even destructive to the cause of which they were entrusted to. Without exception they all were so like Julia Gillard & this concerns me greatly.

So true Individual. Little Julie has about as much in common with the majority of Ozzies, as I have with Captain Cook.

Labor have stuffed the public service almost totally, [as if it weren't bad enough before], with their affirmative action. They have run around in circles, looking for any woman they could jam into senior jobs, thus we have the bureaucracies full of women promoted to their fifth or sixth level of incompetence, rather than men promoted to their second or third.

They have found it a useful tool for buying votes, so why not go the whole hog, & stick one in the lodge.

I must say, however, she will have to go some to be any where near as bad as Rudd.