I wonder how many of us saw that 'kiss' and hug between "Phony Tony" and Julia?

Damn..... how can you get all fired up and 'hate' dat opposition (the one's you don't wanna vote for) when the leaders are cuddling up ?

I'm confused. (u knew that)

Tony wants to can the uber tin cans/strings thing...(BBN) which I want, and Julia is looking more like Tony in drag by the day....

Now...they are KISSING and loving each other on national TV.. it's all too much.

Nevertheless, there is a great lesson in that rather *passionate* political moment..it's possible to disagree and yet still care for and express warmth toward another person.

Tony is being too nice to be PM at the moment. He seems like a sock puppet mouthing scripted words.. too scared to say much with any passion for fear of being mocked.. Julia has the required basketballs,
and even has very "LNP" policies on some critical issues (echo's of One Nation/LiberalNational take up ?) So.... I have a theory.

Lurking in the background....stealing the thunder and show.. Peter Costello lurks as the standout Choice for a sudden last minute change of leadership costume. (any thoughts?)

For discussion, are there any lessons in the Gillard/Abbot'moment of warmth' in terms of difference of opinion and attitude toward those we disagree with?

Well we really don't need to see a love in at the election. More co-operative attitudes during the term would be better. Tony is doing what Tony was always going to do. Now the election campagne is afoot he has gone into his shell. Scared that under direct questioning he will make a meal of the answers. The thing on his side is that he stands for what Howard stands for and in certain areas of government like administrative process and execution that is a winner for him. Unfortunately the whole work choices thing won't go away and his answers varied just enough for a media with nothing better to do than make a mountain out of a mole hill.

The sore toe for me are the debates. Again only one and no third party involvement. I am rarely swayed by anything that is said or done in an election campagne. If you haven't got an idea as to how the government is performing by now you weren't paying attention. I do enjoy the debates though, they tell you a lot about a leaders and parties own understanding of the policy they carry. Also the body language and eye movement tell us who is, well telling porky pies. The three debate system the Pom's used recently seems not to bad and having the third party there kept it interesting. It didn't become votes for the DLP as i doubt it would for the Greens either. It would give the others a chance to nail Bob on some issues and see how well he stands up to the focus. Of course you run the risk he performs well and the greens get an even bigger cut of the Senate making it harder to say they are unrepresentative.

AGIR... "Tony is being too nice to be PM at the moment. He seems like a sock puppet mouthing scripted words.. too scared to say much with any passion for fear of being mocked"

I'd describe that as 'situation normal'.

Abbott has not-much to offer within his politics, maybe a tad more than Julie Bishop having watched her make a total goose of herself, again, on Q&A.

There is no need for Abbott to be 'not nice' to Gillard, in fact, I hope he doesn't fall for that trap, but he does need to question her lack of policy clarity, and her years of sticking up for Rudd's personal views imposed on the ALP as ALP policy.

Julie Bishop did say one intelligent thing last night, when she called on Gillard to define what was meant by 'sustainable'.

Good move, and it's about time a few journo's started asking that question too.

Clearly, Costello is not coming back, but Turnbull might be able to if Abbott loses the election.

As far as the 'debates' go... well, really, about as useful as a Y4 Debating Society effort aren't they?

If anyone relies on these to 'learn' anything, they perhaps should not be voting?

Polycarp,
There is a very true axiom in Politics that goes
" oppositions don't win Elections...Governments lose them."

Tony's political strategy is to keep a low profile so that he isn't a easy target and get the Labor to shoot themselves in their own nether region and emphasis their " PR failings". He is hoping JG inexperience will give him government.
Competence, policy and leadership are all faded ideals of a by gone era.
Today politics is a blood sport between two teams of self interested,
egotistic, opportunists, obsessed with the acquisition and maintenance of personal power. To facilitate those apparent goals, negativity, internecine chicanery, politicking and public manipulation (spin ) are the order of the day. Oh yes...I forgot (silly me) In order to justify the above as having some larger/noble purpose, morphing elastic policies to give the perception of government.

Anything short of this IMO is disingenuous in the least and delusional at worse.

We as a 'nation?'get what we deserve.

Memories on OLO must be short not to remember that the long-suffering and silent vast majority of voters have expressed disgust for politicians who oppose for the sake of opposing and act like clowns in parliament.

There is also a growing exasperation in the electorate with politicians and parties who obviously have no intention of pulling their weight in parliament and contributing in positive and constructive ways to the betterment of Australia. Fair enough too, politicians should be measured for their individual productivity too and there are well-known phantoms in both State and federal houses who are known only for their abuse of perks and overseas travel.

Who could ever forget the well-remunerated opposition who thought they ought to be paid more because their dislodgement from the government benches had resulted in the loss of income and lavish lifestyle? Who forgets the big schoolboy Costello, who took a long holiday in opposition to write (well sort of draft, father-in-law helped) his dud memoirs?

However the really odd man out at present is the Greens - the protest party that makes no pretence of putting forward practical policies that include all Australians and waste Senate time.

Strangely enough, the APS has been unable to estimate the all-up annual cost (salary, perks, travel and overheads) of maintaining individual federal politicians, but the minimum cost is known to be in excess of a million dollars per annum. What performance and productivity should a taxpayer expect for a cool $1 million a year? It would have to be better than the occasional grandstanding in front of a camera, right?

Yep...that Axiom is one I've quoted myself many times.

In Tony's case though, I think his low profile and very hesitatingly and domino stacked sentences seem more to indicate he is worried about his former gaff about speaking truth all the time :)

TBC.. I'm curious about your own position.. you seem to have some criticism for all from what I see..which is a good thing.

Personally I'm middle of the road.. I abhor "union" run political parties as much as I abhor "Business run" types... but I'm afraid I just don't have any time for the watermelons :) the reasons are a few...

But the one big one that stands out is the issue of their "Sustainable climate bill"..ooooh my 113 pages if memory serves me right.

As the prophet of all things green and socialist in the USA, Joel Rogers said "Even if we shut down EVery power plant and took EVery car off the road now.. (leaving the economy at a standstill) we would not be down to 60% of 1995 emissions".... (I'll check my figures on that..but look him up on youtube.

The main problem with the Greens sustainability stuff is that it's not sustainable :)