True, does it make any difference though?

He's a goner, a dead parrot, a piece of history, a dead duck, a fizzer, past tense, 'dead buried and cremated' in the words of the World's Biggest Dunce.

If K Rudd had said something like this I reckon a few more Labor MPs - those with a bit of red blood in them - would have added to his 31 vote total in today's ballot:

"I want to get the hell in there again. The quicker I clean up this Goddamned mess, the quicker we can take a little jaunt against the purple pissing Libs and clean out their nest, too. Before that Goddamned woman gets all of the credit."
(apologies to General George S. Patton, Jr)

Rudd’s been absolutely trounced!!

Ahh, that has really brightened my day ( :>)

What a crazy thing to do – to give up one of the country’s most esteemed jobs as foreign affairs minister, with all its lerks and perks, without being pretty well assured that he was going to win back the prime ministership!

So he’s gone. Yarrhoo!

It is ironic that Julia Gillard was instrumental in getting Kevin Rudd to shelve the emissions trading scheme (which turned out to be his best prime ministerial decision), promised that her government would not introduce a carbon tax, but then did a complete backflip to introduce the world's highest carbon tax, given that there was no empirical scientific evidence nor economic or international reasons to justify such a tax.

It is ironic that Julia Gillard introduced the Fair Work ( an ironic misnomer) Act that, by allowing the imposition of high labour costs and reducing labour productivity, reversed the economy-enhancing labour deregulation measures implemented by the Hawke-Keating Labor governments. Julia even failed to give the appearance of fairness, by allowing the appointment of ex-union officials to 11 of the top 14 Fair Work Act administrative positions.

It is ironic that Julia Gillard claims that she is serious about assisting Australian manufacturing, but then imposes the carbon tax and implements a Fair Work Act that will disadvantage -- not assist -- all Australian industry.

It is ironic that Julia Gillard, contrary to what applies in other developed economies, has renationalised the telecommunications industry that the Hawke-Keating Labor governments had transformed and made more efficient by opening to competition.

Is the Gillard 'brand' of Labor the Labor brand to which the authors aspire? If so, it is in the national interest that the next general election be brought on as soon as possible

18 months, and there will be an election. In the meantime maybe we can see some policies from the noalition, that stack up of course. Until then no one knows what they are voting for.
A political leader position is not a popularity position, you vote for a party.

Just a thought.

Can Ms Gillard form a stable government between here and the next scheduled election? If I were Tony Abbott (which thank the lord I'm not, sir), and if I wanted to grab the Prime Minister spot before my own party lynches me for being a dick, I'd do everything I could to bring the election date forward.

Given a fairly disenchanted Labor back bench,one that is now populated by a bunch of relatively senior, and disgruntled, members, it wouldn't take much to topple the whole thing.

Fact is, Abbott will become increasingly dispensable, the closer an election gets...

Drover's dog, anyone?

In the meantime, I expect there is a seat already warm for Rudd at Macquarie Bank. He must be worth at least as much as the half bar they slung Bob Carr's way, surely?

After all, that payment for his "part-time consultancy" couldn't possibly have been for services previously rendered by His Bobness, could it.