Wildcat,
I make this prediction, if the little rodent appears as if he's going to lose the next election, he will retire hurt, you know "for medical/personal reasons etc" and Costello will be thrown the poisoned challice. When Costello loses Turnbull will become Liberal Party leader, and it will really be on in 2010.

I'm sure that the public will be massively underwhelmed by Rudd's pointing out that Howard may have some philosophical inconsistencies. What an election winner...NOT.

Rudd is assiduously avoiding creating a single new policy while jumping on the "We all hate Johnny don't we?,so make me Prime Minister" bandwagon which failed miserably for the wretched Mr Latham. His honeymoon will be very short lived once Gillard's leadership intentions become clear.

I've been a Liberal Party voter all of my life. Since Workchoices and Howard's "shrinking choices" policies across a range of different areas, I have thought about voting for the ALP in the next election. Certainly friends of mine who were staunch Liberal party voters and even members, have taken that attitude over the past 2-3 years. With Rudd & Gillard combination now in place, that's exactly what I intend to do.

While I am not personally affected by the changes Howard has put into place, I know of several people who have been and are affected by a range of policy changes. My sense of Aussie mateship and a fair go(there are couple of Aussie values Mr Robb) wont allow me to take the attitude of I am right so bugger my fellow Aussie mates.

Rudd's understanding of philosophy is not designed to draw in all of the voters. Such an interpretation of Rudd is conveniently and very simplistic and silly. It misses the real point!

In part, it may also been interpreted as a reflection of how multi-talented he is, and of his genuine committment to be engaged on a number levels about a range of issues. It underscores his intellectual enthusiasm and his enthusiasm for life, learning and understanding people and society generally.

Rudd clearly has many interests and excels in many areas. He is a leader by way of example who walks the talk...not a puppet waiting to be fed lines.

Whether the Rudd/Gillard team end up representing a watershed in Australian politics only time will tell. But, I frankly have had enough of seeing and hearing of an increasing number of people suffering in one way or another thanks to the intersection and cummulative bite of Howard's policies.

Rudd has begun his to-be-short-lived life as labor leader by imitating the tactics of the man he hopes to dislodge. No sooner leader and he is looking around for a easy target to blame for all of society's woes. A quick listen to talkback radio and he's on the right track. A good old session of teacher bashing and the political landscape is set. Howard and Rudd will be falling over each other in the months ahead as they listen to concerns of electorate via Laws and Jones.

passenger,

It is not at all clear that Kevin Rudd has indulged in the highly competitive sport of teacher-bashing. He does not even mention teachers. He is reported as saying, "I mean educational opportunity for kids from working families to have a high quality of education with high standards applied to it, and that means a strong emphasis on the quality control of education outcomes” and "I am not interested in simply investing and providing greater investment into education in the absence of guarantees of quality outcomes for working families." It is The Australian which has supplied the headline: “Rudd puts teachers on notice”.

It is essential that Mr Rudd stay true to Labor principles on IR. If he does not, we might as well have two Liberal Parties. That a government which has passed such unjust IR laws has any chance of winning the next election shows how much Australia has changed in the last ten years. These laws simply increase the power of the employer over that of the employee in ways that are foreign to what it once meant to be an Australian.

If Kevin Rudd can crystallise in the public's minds how anti-family this legislation is, he can win in 2007. That he might be able to do so is shown by the number of articles published in The Australian pressuring him into backing down

I've yet to make up my mind on whether KR is a philosopher or an ideologue. One thing is for sure, he would rather believe in something than fall for anything. Howard's problem is that he believes he is his own great philosopher. Rudd is willing to refer to other men and ideas.