Foxy,

No one has any doubt that JG is a smart cookie. However, Labor has been running its campaign as if TA was not. This has been a fatal error, as TA has also been a senior director and is familiar with surrounding himself with competent people, and in doing so has out manoeuvred JG at every turn.

I feel sorry for JG, as the Labor cabinet looks like a complete snake pit, and she is suffering from more attacks from within her own party than from the Liberals. A few more strategic leaks, and the election is lost.

Shadow Minister

If Abbot wins will you keep your name?

Dear Houellie,

Oh, go evolve!

Should I 'Move Forward' Foxy?

Julia Gillard's stocks shot up when she made apparently decisive announcements like the reduction in Rudd's over-the-top immigration for his 'Big Australia'. However she then showed that her promises were likely worthless and she was playing the electorate for jackass punters when she turned around with a wink to the elites and promised another talk fest instead.

Then there were the leaks suggesting that Julia could not be relied upon by the vulnerable such as the aged and young families to champion them even if votes might be lost. Her explanations were unconvincing.

Her affair? It was played with a side step and a flick pass back to the man and his ex-wife to answer. Weasel words instead of a strong and principled denial with dates to prove it. People are forgiving but no-one is sucked in by side-stepping, that just smells of possible hypocrisy. In her defence, maybe that is how some bureaucrats and lawyers habitually answer, but a leader must be forthright and frank, if she is to comment at all.

The public will react badly to Julia's present attempt to blame a fictitious whipping boy for scripting her campaign and presentations. However, a strong leader would take it on the chin and resolve to do better.

Julia's problem is that she doesn't seem to have a strong core to her being. She is coming across as ambitious and pragmatic, but sans a centre core of beliefs, ethics and principles. Maybe sans a centre core at all, just a stuffed blouse.

To be blunt, she looks like any other of the ambitious 'can do' unprincipled types that are always in abundant supply in the nation's capital. Now she may not be like any of that, but the only way of showing the difference is to stand up on her principles and be counted. Ahem, exactly what does she stand for again? Because that is different to the easy motherhood stuff - saying what she are opposed to, like 'injustice'.

Julia has to give reasons for people to vote for her.

Dear Shadow Minister,

Katharine Murphy wrote an interesting article
in, "The Age," Saturday, July 31st 2010,
"Insight" section, entitled, "Caught In A Trap."

Murphy tells us that, "Several people say the
current position is bad but it is not yet
diabolical - after all there is still time.
The crisis has not engulfed the party in the
final weeks... in the end, this campaign
will come down to what is happening off the
national narrative - to the mood of the voters in
the country's marginal seats. Mike Rann's victory
in South Australia shows leaders can prevail even
if campaigns veer wildly off script if the right
practice is being followed in marginal seats..."

So, I guess we'll have to wait and see what
happens. The difficulty seems to be as Anson
Cameron tells us in, "The Age," Saturday, July 31st,
2010, " Both major parties have moved into the
space of the other so willingly they have become
cojoined and if Labor lands a blow on Liberal
it is Chang slapping Eng, a Siamese squabble
as unsightly as self-flagellation. Product
differentiation has almost got beyond even
advertising's best liars ... airlines encountered
this problem years ago. They used identical
Boeings, and had to meet the same safety
requirements. They were in essence, the same.
So, how did an airline distinguish itself from
its competitors? "Singapore Girl...You're a great
way to fly. They highlighted the sexiness of their
front-of-house staff...The Liberals and Labor have
taken to doing the same, playing up their
front-of-house staff and ignoring the 767 in the
hangar. But politics is a dirtier game than air
travel and political parties go further than extolling
the beauty and serenity of their own hosties, they attack
the history and morality of their competitor's cart
tarts. The TV campaign is becoming an apocalyptic
catfight between a Singapore Girl and a Virgin."