When Rudd made a public call for 'the people' to support him, he showed a basic misunderstanding of how our parliamentary system of government works. It does not include Big Brother.
He's gone now, and I think that has to be a good thing for both the ALP and Australia.
Now Julia has the clear air she needs if she is to turn things around over the next 18 months and win the next general election. But I wonder if she can do that. On Question Time last night she was going for Abbott's jugular again, seemingly unaware that most people are turned off by the blood soaked image our PM projects.

I thought it quite ironic that Gillard in one of her usual “now stay awake while I tell you something” speeches, commented how wonderful it was that public systems such as Facebook were used to unseat and remove a number of dictators and unwanted government leaders in some countries recently, when at the same time pol after pol showed that she was not wanted as the leader of this country.

Then she also ignored the huge following Rudd had on Twitter and Facebook, and she still wanted to stay in power.

Perhaps it was more than irony. Perhaps total hypocrisy is a better way of describing it.

Not a popularity contest, if it were we would have Kylie minogue as prime minister.
In some countries you are not allowed to talk in public.
MR Rudd is a panzy, he appeals to the same.

I see Julia is trying a new image. She's talking tough all over the place, but I'm afraid it is not working for her.

With a few folk I know, they have not felt she is a new Maggy Thacher iron lady. They reckon the new image is just "bitch".

It does look as if once you've lost them, there is no way back.

Hasbeen,
I won't be alarmed or startled if she goes into bitch mode. I'll just turn the channel whenever she appears, or I hear her voice.

Vanna and Hasbeen, as bitter as you are about Gillard holding onto the top job, I wonder what you really think of a bloke like Rudd being so disliked by his own party members that they would rather vote for a person unpopular with the Australian public than vote for him?

Doesn't that worry you at all?

Doesn't it worry all the many so-called 'opinion poll' people who apparently wanted Rudd back in the top job?

Could all the many other party members who voted against him have been wrong about him then?
Or maybe it is just that the average voters who wanted him back just didn't know the real 'Dictator' Rudd like his own party did?

When the ranters fell silent the end result of Rudd's "crimes" amounted to nothing.

Roxon lied when she said Rudd suddenly dreamed up a referendum, it was party policy before the 2007 election.

Swan claims that a born and bred bush boy from Queensland, son of a war vet, battler has no labor values but a ring in fresh off the boat with no history at all in Australia does.

What an idiot.

And Emerson reckons he was a one man band but Emerson tried to stop MP's from attending a West Papua function.

Rudd was done over by the zionist lobby for daring to criticise Israel and anyone with half a brain knows it.

Suseonline
I have always found the situation suspicious. There was no hint of serious dissatisfaction with Rudd coming from any politician within government. There was also no mention of it from the press, and the press just love any type of gossip, and would have published something if they had sensed it.

No one from politics or from the press said anything, and suddenly Australians woke up one morning and had a new Prime Minister.

I have always sensed foul play and sensed feminism was involved. The ALP is quite feminist and untrustworthy, and they threw out Rudd and installed Gillard so Australia would have its first female Prime Minister.

That seems the most plausible explanation of the events that took place.

I would like to see all politics removed from government, and systems developed whereby the government is run by the best person for the job and not run by a political party.

If feminists have become involved in the APL as seems to be the situation, it is more essential to remove political parties out of government.

Suse, I'm right with you.

I couldn't believe that the ALP would make Rudd leader, although anyone watching the ABC in Queensland before the fact could see his & I must say, the ABCs plans to do so. During the build up to the challenge once again, the ABC had Rudd on screen more than I could believe.

I can't stand the man. Snake & slime are the best words to describe him for me.

I had high hopes when he was chucked out, but Julia fixed that in just a week or so.

Still I prefer her there, she is less effective, so will do less damage, & assure the fools will be long gone next election.

I did think it funny that the new persona appeared with in minutes of Rudd's defeat. It must have been a planned new image.

Sorry Julia love, it "ain't" working. Nothing will make you attractive, emotionally, or rationally, & we would prefer your space to your presence.

Vanna, I doubt that if Rudd had been doing a good job in the first place that his colleagues would have thrown him out!
I don't believe that a predominantly male Government would have been influenced by feminism in any way.

Julia was good as deputy Prime Minister, and thus was the obvious choice when the others agreed that Rudd was a second Hitler by all accounts.

Hasbeen, I agree that Julia isn't working at all too. I dislike Rudd, and hope he enjoys a long career on the backbench.

I know they won't win the next election, and I am glad.
However, I am loath to think about about the bumbling Abbott being in the top job too.
I am thinking the Greens are looking better all the time...

Suxanonline
The ALP is influenced by the unions, and although small in membership, many of those unions are now heavily influenced by feminism

There would have been strong pressure within the ALP to have a female Prime Minister, and using some backdoor method to get Julia Gillard into the Prime Minister’s office before the next election would have been the best bet in getting a female Prime Minister.

There was no one else on the horizon who could make a female Prime Minister except Julia Gillard.

So the whole thing smacks of corrupted government, deceit, feminism and lies being told to the public.

I say throw out all political parties from government, and have a system where the public votes directly for the policies they want, and for the people they want to carry out those policies.

Suse I can't go with you there.

If you go Green you are approving of one world government, probably by a ramped up UN.

I reckon the last 3 secretary generals of that totally corrupt organisation make Julia look like a paragon of virtue. Do be careful what you ask for. I have found there is always a fire waiting for those who jump out of the frying pan without looking very carefully first, just because that pan is a little uncomfortable.

Although as time goes by I think Abbott is looking more like the best we are likely to get, the same advice applies. I am looking very carefully before I jump. Like many of our Labor people, Turnbull sounded quite good. However it did not take long to find feet of clay below that granite jaw.

Although a large number of individual country governments are more than a little dysfunctional, many are quite good. Much better those good ones showing the way than one corrupt dysfunctional lot such as the UN enforcing their policies on all of us. You only have to glance at their totally cynical global warming grab for money & power to see that.

Such an organisation would likely be quite vindictive to the previous world leading countries. Sure we have only been coat tail hangers-on, but I reckon we would learn all about payback from any world institution very quickly.

Of course you didn't hear any rumblings about Rudd from the government at the beginning. When does the public ever hear about this sort of stuff until usually just after or just before the event. In these situations parties go into damage control and try to make the best of it until it is no longer able to minimise the damage.

Conspiracy theories about Zionist plots are just distractions. While anything is possible in politics, especially in a more globally focussed world, it does not mean sometimes the most simplest explanation is the correct one. That is, a stuff up as opposed to a conspiracy.

How does a party deal with a leader who is damaging the ability to get things done properly, who dictates rather than consults and then having to clean up after monumental failures? Finally the ALP finally did what had to be done even despite the risk of being unpopular especially with the disadvantage of a female PM (accounting for some societal prejudices). Finally a government not afraid of the polls in doing what needed to be done.

But I don't think this is the end of Kevin Rudd's impact one way or another. The people power thing backfired to a large extent many people ringing to say if Rudd was back in they would vote Green or Liberal. To hear the Rudd camp you would think his popularity was a given. Spin it long enough and maybe enough people believe it.

Pelican,

All governments are afraid of the polls. The ALP are just as ignorant of their perceived odium in voter-land as was the Howard government prior to its demise. Labor, at present, is about shoring up positions of power amid the helter-skelter of internal rivalries - completely dislocated, it seems, from the perceptions in the electorate.

Still heading for the cliff after stopping for a punch-up at the tavern.

The cliff indeed Poirot.

Both parties have failed to internalise the feelings in the electorate but I am starting to think they don't care too much - afterall it is only a battle ostensibly between the two tweedles.

Abbott still hasn't given the electorate a policy and Gillard is still being perceived as acting under the public radar when it comes to the filling of the Senate vacancy.

Some honesty and truth telling from a politician would be a welcome change and I believe they would be pleasantly surprised with the outcome.