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.