Yes, backtrack! And back to an asylum where the inmates are in charge? Yes?
Alan B.

After Turnbull's liberalism, will there be anything left of the Coalition to lead? Abbott is the only person to lead a Conservative alternative to the Left liberalism forced on us by Turnbull and his 54 dags of the Left. The big question is: will we ever have another conservative party, or will half the population be disenfrachised as we are now?

Firstly the Libs have not lost, yet. Today's news from Orlando may stiffen up a bit more resolve in Australia to stop making obvious mistakes with a change to labour.
I liked TA as our leader and I know how amused he would be by all the bile and hatred from his opponents the ABC especially.
If labour get in we can expect another shambolic performance coupled with a coming World depression which should sort them out properly.

A realistic assessment by JS.

Sadly, Malcolm, who considers himself the smartest person in the parliament, is weighed down by misplaced faith in the god Political Correctness.

Ironically, Tony Abbott gets caned by a politically correct media for not being a practitioner of political correctness.

It would not surprise if history considers Tony to have been the more effective server of the national interest, irrespective of whether he has a "Lazarus rising".

Some conservatives still don't get it. Emotions drive alot of voters and sometimes they don't vote for a party, but vote against a Govt. So it was in the last election, when people voted against Labor. Abbott just happened to be leader who kicked alot of shins politically.

So people voted Liberal despite Abbott, not because of him. The opinion polls clearly showed that his popularity was not there, apart for a small bunch of conservatives. But most of Australia is not conservative, they are liberal and somewhere in the middle of the political spectrum.

If Turnbull should lose, then these conservatives will only have themselves to blame.

Libs are very unlikely to lose. When the true Turnbull comes out anyone with half a conscience will look for another leader. It is sickening that Turnbull will be relected purely on Abbott's achievements of stopping the illegals (something that the regressives said was impossible) and removing the idiotic breathing tax (another thing the regressives said was impossible. Bishop had shown how full of self interest she was in putting the knife in (shows females have no higher morals than the males). Hopefully people will give the ALA or Hanson a run in the senate.

Placing the lipstick on the pig by junking Abbott gave the LNP a winning margin for the first time since the Abbott-Santamaria mafia lied it into office. Since then enough electors have recognised the pig behind the lipstick for the electoral advantage of the incomplete cleanout to be all but lost. Just read the opinion polling history. Mr Turnbull is a gentleman trying to prop up a body riddled with Abbott-Santamaria metastases. Couldn't last.

And Yabby, about half the conservatives I know will cheer if Turnbull loses. The last thing we want is this disgusting bit of garbage as PM, or in the Liberal party.

Many will only vote Liberal again, after he's gone, & the quickest way to achieve that is for a Labor win.

EmperorJulian, I don't know how anyone can be so naïve as to hold your opinion of Turnbull. You must believe gentlemen always carry a blood dripping knife.

I suppose you would consider Gillard a gentle lady then too.

No, Gillard's not a gentle lady. Rather a very gutsy lady who was the only pollie who could gather together a functional and effective government from the mixed bag the voters elected to parliament in 2010. Her only real failing was to let the ALP apparatchiks persuade her to hold her punches in the face of Abbott and Murdoch's and Alan Jones' avalanche of libellous lies.

*And Yabby, about half the conservatives I know will cheer if Turnbull loses.*

Hasbeen, you just made my point for me. So full of hate you have forgotten how to think. Conservatives are going to have to swallow the fact that many might be liberal, but not conservative. Many an old fart is simply too old and stubborn to adjust to a changing world. The polls prove me right. People don't want Abbott, other than a few conservatives. Turnbull can at least still think like younger people think, unlike a whole bunch of you.

The likes of the Abbott-Santamaria throwbacks seem to have managed to hijack the word "conservative". To me, conservative means resistant to loss of the enormous human progress made as a result of the late 18th century Enlightenment. Protecting the postwar social compact, and the huge advances in fairness brought in by the Whitlam government, is conservative. Radical throwbacks are not merely anti-change they are unravellers of what has been achieved in the past. Protecting social security including Medicare is conservative. Seeking loss of these gains is not conservative but is radical. Going after new change towards greater fairness and justice is, on the other hand, progressive.