Dear Suse,

You could be right about Katter being more
popular in the outer regions and not having
the mass appeal. However, rural Australia
needs a voice - and having read his bio
recently in a magazine - he seems very dedicated
to his electorate and the people he represents.

As for Clive Palmer - we'll have to wait and see.
He's pulled out previously - so can't really judge
him.

Dear SOG,

I was thinking of a broader picture.
So Thanks for that.

SOG/Lexi,

Yes, point taken. I guess I was referring to the very narrow policy platform that is currently represented by Katter and Palmer.

Whilst we may well discuss the wider policy issues I’m not sure these two can, otherwise they will just be “me too’s” with little differentiation.

Thank goodness for rational threads such as this.

Dear spindoc,

Thanks for that.

I watched "The Insiders," this morning and the
panel did discuss Clive Palmer and Bob Katter.
They seemed to think that Katter had a good
chance of retaining his seat. He's apparently
done a lot for his electorate. And he's popular
in the far North. Whereas the feeling
about Palmer was that he's got a big job ahead of
him. He hasn't registered his Party yet, nor does
he have any candidates for the many electorates
around Australia, although that can be solved more
easily, I guess. In other words, he's not well
organised at this stage - and with the election
looming in four months, there's not much time left.

Other commentators are saying that Palmer just may
make it in Fairfax. That he's in with a rough chance there.

Politics all of a sudden appears to be getting interesting
and shows that voters are more diverse than the polls
would have us believe.

The Clive Palmer thing seems to have a bit of the Donald Trumps about it.

What happened with that one?

Dear Poirot,

I think NBC which carries Trump's show, "The Apprentice,"
talked him out of it.

"The Apprentice," is more his style - where he can sell
his brand.

This link may be of interest:

http://www.couriermail.com.au/news/queensland/clive-palmers-run-for-pm-will-be-titanic/story-e6freoof-1226631114094