Belly, but how does one define 'grassroots' anymore?

If I can take a liberty with you, you do not sound as if you are very keen on the new 'grassroots' of the ALP.

The uni' educated politics undergrad who scores a Party or union job and works as a 'shinyarse' for years, never touching a tool, shovel, truck, blackboard even, and passing through the ranks as if s/he (but still mostly he) were a MENSA gifted individual.

Meanwhile, there is Belly, up to his armpits in sweat and smoko, trying to smooth over the latest forelock tugging exercise to BIG $$$ from Rudd, Gillard, Tanner, Swan, or some total disaster from the joke minister of the decade, Garrett, and so on.

You may well regard yourself, I think with some justification, as being part of the 'grassroots' of the ALP, but your ALP has evaporated, and the new one is barely distinguishable from Graham Young's beloved Liberal Party.

However, I do believe you could be right about Turnbull, who, whatever his ego driven short comings are, sounds to me to be a reasonable person, and someone the Liberals need to hang on to and reward with a real job, with the view of another Lazurus, but of the Howard kind, not the Peacock one.

In fact, Turnbull sounds as if he is the only intelligent person in the parliamentary neo-liberal mob today.

Yabby, Costello would have been a bigger disaster than Abbott. Abbott couldn't win the election even when it was handed to him on a platter. Costello would have performed even worse as leader.

There's "reasons" why Howard never handed over the leadership to Costello, and those reasons all concern Costello's abilities. Costello was assisted by the biggest mining boom ever, and any treasurer could have easily built a surplus over that period. Gee, even if Wilson Tuckey was treasurer in that period he would have been able to produce a great surplus. Costello didn't have either the ticker or abilities to succeed as either PM or opposition leader.

Samsung, you clearly did not watch too many parliamentary debates,
where Costello used to chew em up and spit em out, on a regular
basis, based on his reasoning skills. Keating was another great
performer and also one who with hindsight we can see, made changes
to the Australian economy that had to be made.

But many of the Australian public prefer a crawler, which is why
Howard did well for so long. Its also one of the reasons why
we have so many mediocre politicians.

Costello was unelectable as PM and Howard knew this. And the irony of this was that Howard himself was dumped by the electorate. They were the Batman and Robin of politics, but were eaten up and spat out by Superman (Rudd) and Wonderwoman (Gillard).

Poor Peter, always the bridesmaid, but never the bride.

I have to agree with Yabby on the Costello skills in 'this place'.

I thought he was very amusing, and effective, and just as good as Keating for his acerbic lines.

But, his politics did not appeal at all.

And Yabby is also correct on 'the masses' here, who cringe away from any hint of conflict, part of our dulling down education system and the overall coercive nature we thrive on in Oz.

*Costello was unelectable as PM and Howard knew this. And the irony of this was that Howard himself was dumped by the electorate.*

Samsung, far more likely IMHO, Howard let his own ego get in the way
of his integrity and it backfired on him. He did after all have
an agreement with Costello, which he never kept.

I once sent Costello a dirty email about something, where I strongly
disagreed with him. His staffer replied that my proposal conflicted
with his ideology. I might have agreed to disagree, but I did respect
the fact that he had a clear ideology and was guided by that. Unlike
many politicians, whose desire to be elected trumps everying else.

Nobody knows how Costello would have gone, once freed from the
Howard shackles. Gillard only really came out of her shell, once free
from Kevin's apron strings. Deputies can't really say what they
think, they have to toe the line.

As we know, the public in democracies, often get it wrong. So
George Bush was elected twice, net result, he nearly bankrupted
the American economy and nation, its going to take them years to
try and dig their way out of the mess. The American public are
paying a high price.

So I guess people get the politicians that they deserve. Which
leads me back to my original point. Costello once noted that
as a politician he gave his advice freely and most took no notice.
As a lawyer, he charged them and then his advice was worth something
and respected. Food for thought.