It's all well and good to say Rudd has no profile yet, but there are promising signs for the new labor leader - his speech on federalism was one of the nicest pieces of tricky politics I've seen come out of the labor party for some time.

Essentially, he managed to blame Howard for the States failings - by jumping on the federalism bandwagon and promising to more clearly delineate states responsibilities, he managed to co-opt support from the premiers - largely because they'd rather deal with Rudd than howard.

At the same time, he said that in Howard's 11 years in power, he had done nothing concrete for federalism, because he enjoyed 'blaming it on the states.'

This was a nice, subtle piece of work. Howard was effectively hamstrung, something I was beginning to think wasn't possible.
If he criticised the states, he proved Rudd right. If he advocated a strong federalist approach, he would risk the wrath of the premiers at a sensitive time, a risk which wasn't likely for Rudd.

In any case, this speech hinted at a subtlety not common to Labor leaders.

Rudd has no vision? The idea of the commonwealth taking hospitals sounds like a vision to me. He's only been in a few days and you demand vision? Pronto?

What vision does John Howard have? No wonder he is looking tired as well as sinister.

You tell us with vitriol that all the Liberal Party's energy is now in cleaver negative energy mode. So they are just going to nancy around and whinge, bully, and put down the ALP. Is that a vision?

The fact is, the Government has no vision. They stupidly followed the US to the Iraqi war in breach on international UN law which Australia signed only 12 before. It is illegal for Australia to invade another country that poses no threat to Australia.

Howard risked breaking this law to prove our worthiness for the FTA, which was a bad economic treaty anyway. Australia has little to gain: the US is laughing at such suckers.

Now the US Defense Secretary has officially declared that they were wrong about invading Iraq all along and are failing. Stupid!

Howard waisted billions of our taxpayer's money on this lie. Part of this was to lock up children in detention centres. What a bloody mess!

The Liberals are so desperate to stay in power, they savage the funding for the ABC and rape its content of any dignity.

You say they can stand on the economy? Australia's performance is less than ordinary now, as other, more sensible countries are doing far better than ours. Look at the facts. Most of successful economies have Labour Governments with fresh new ideas.

OK, now, disregard this outrageous story and tell the truth.

This is a very flat Christmas for retailers. Mortgages, interest rates, poverty, Christmas? What Christmas spirit? The air is thick of resentment and fear, no one dares to spend. The Howard Government has set this miserly tone.

In short, this country is in a bloody shambles. Too many liars in a fools paradise! Most voters are polling against the Government for good reasons.

Howard is a master politician, for certain. Now he has to face up to a large number of unpopular policies. His stance on the environment is inconsistent and nuclear is feared in the community. Labor will surely ask him where he plans to build his reactors. IR laws are unpopular and will not win him any new votes. And don't mention the war. Howard's strength, as the acticle points out, is his personal standing, which seems unshakeable regardless of his performance. Appearances will work to help Rudd - he seems moderate and traditional - just like Howard. Both parties will play up the fear factor. The Liberals are running out of issues to frighten the voters with as interest rates scares have lost their punch. Labor will tap people's fears at least as effectively as the Liberals and should win.

Team Rudd should have a vision for Australia.
A political person must have a vision.
Unless he is only in it for the money and ego.
I do believe Team Rudd have a vision.
We would all like to see the Federal Government take control of the Hospitals, Medicine.
Doctors and health professionals would not need seven police checks if they want to practice around Auastralia.
Schools and Education should also be under Federal Control,again Teachers personal information on seven different computer systems does not sound a very private thing.
While we are on vision, pity the poor children who move from state to state having their personal details on every local police computer thanks to the Murphy Family Court.
Wake up Australia and Team Rudd their are many things to include in the vision.

Team Rudd should have a vision for Australia.
A political person must have a vision.
Unless he is only in it for the money and ego.
I do believe Team Rudd have a vision.
We would all like to see the Federal Government take control of the Hospitals, Medicine then Doctors and health professionals would not need seven police checks if they want to practice around Auastralia.
Schools and Education should also be under Federal Control,again Teachers personal information on seven different computer systems does not sound a very private thing.
While we are on vision pity the poor children who move from state to state having their personal details on every local police computer thanks to the Murphy Family Court.
Wake up Australia and Team Rudd their are many things to include in the vision.

Hmmmm - the will have a go. Yes they can lay on thick duabs of paint and that is putting it politely - but the so called paint is piled on pretty thick on the gubment at the moment -

Vanstones performance of the 7-30 report made me think of the wrong doings of Ministers, either sins of ommission or commission. The only Ministers I can recall who fell on their swords in my memory were in the Hawke Cabinet - Mick Young went over the bear and ross kelly went over the white board debacle -

No one has gone since - not a solitary one - nothing over the nonsense of WMDs and the rest of the lies thrown our way about Iraq, nothing over the lies regarding Tampa, nothing over Reiths phone card fiasco or his role on the docks scandal, nothing over Vanstones storm troopers in DIMIA, nothong over the AWB cock up -

Even true blue conservatives have tired of this duplicity - so I suspect Rudd will cop a fair bit of stick as will Gillard - but there is enough genuine poor form on the other side to make it irrelevant.