Lost opportunities says Peter. The Hawke-Keating locust years saw one glaring lost opportunity. Their time steering the ship exceeded 4100 days. But so crowded were their diaries that not one day was found to issue an apology to aborigines. Keating even waited until 1992 before he expressed our national grief and sorrow about the treatment of aborigines. However, Mr Hawke did manage to go fishing with commodore Bond in WA. And how refreshing it was to see Mr Keating grab the opportunity to visit all those overseas locations.

The Wolfdene Dam issue suggests that Mr Rudd is not in the business of nation-building.

I think the chink in the armour for Rudd may well be Rudd himself. Rudd is fine on stuff he knows but he looks like a bit of an amateur when he is forced into unfamiliar territory or hasn't had time to think up a line to take.

The other thing Rudd does is make definitive statements, remember that he said WMDs in Iraq were an empirical fact which was much stronger language than anyone else. That is high risk politically.

I think the other risk is that "New Labor" may emerge and we will be cursed with a rancid Blairite third way.

Let's hope this Big Kev from Queensland doesn't over reach and go belly-up.

Oh dear! There was me thinking the wheels were starting to fall off the Kevin bandwagon.

Although the Government keeps saying that Workchoices is good for us, for the first time the newspoll released today shows that 51% of people think it is bad.

This is the first time workchoices has topped 50% in the total bad category. Even 22% of coaltion voters think workchoices is bad.

This issue may be the one that breaks the camels back for Howard. A grave error of judgement in removing the no disadvantage test.

Kevin Rudd is not falling down and he will not do so.
He has Friends in high places in a news release today a government failure got air time.
That totally lost statement that unions need to stop the lies and anti workchoices campaign it is a lie not supported by workers!
A government that thinks like that is indeed on the way out.
The debate conservatives must have is being held behind closed doors but it is too late to turn this government around.
Can it be true that those who lie best are more likely to find a home on this front bench?
That plausible deniablity is other than just lies?
Sir Robert Menzies Mr Howard would indeed turn his back to you.

Wasted opportunity? Hardly. Record unemployment, highest interest rates, highest government debt those didn't extend from Hawke and keatings terms very far into Howard and Costello's reign. And if Rudd keeps up his current run on huge vague unfunded promises that smack of complete recklessness and wastefulness the trends in polls of today will be repeated up till the election.

All Howard and Costello have to do is keep the economic record 'of the wasted opportunity' in the public's mind. And given the woeful performance of Garret, Swan, Smith and co. ...well Howard will still be PM next year