Kevin Rudd is now the Prime Minister of Australia.

Julia Gillard has declared she will not contest the election, and is thus retiring from politics.

These 2 facts mean that the Coalition will now have to actually make up some policies (poor ones) and do some costings (tricky, deceitful costings), in order to maintain credibility and remain competitive up to the election date.

As we all know, Rudd is FAR more intelligent, persuasive, popular and competent than a dozen Abbotts. Abbott will now be FORCED to face Rudd head on in election debates, and of course he will be demolished by Rudd.

The polls will IMMEDIATELY have Labor quickly catching up, and by election time Labor will have a marginal lead. They will win the election by several seats.

Imagine it, the intelligence of Rudd against the immature, drama queens Hockey, Pyne, Joyce, Bishop, Abbott etc etc. NO CONTEST.

'As we all know, Rudd is FAR more intelligent, persuasive, popular and competent than a dozen Abbotts'.

Really, what do you base this on, rhetoric.

You have the wrong words in your description of Rudd there PJack. The ones you were looking for are cunning, unscrupulous & manipulative.

Being intelligent is one thing of which you could never accuse Rudd.

I knew the jokes would be running thick and fast today. I just didn't expect to see them here. The Coalition has very little to do to win this election. They will have access to plenty of file footage of ALP bigwigs denigrating Rudd. They will have access to plenty of file footage of Rudd saying he had no intention of contesting the leadership. They still don't need policies to win this thing. They have two unassailable weapons in their arsenal:
1) Proof that not even those who chose Rudd like him, and
2) Proof that Rudd cannot be taken at his word.
The ALP will just have to continue their 'Chicken Little' approach - that the sky will fall in on the day that Tony Abbott is sworn in as PM. It's had mixed results so far - people despise Tony Abbott (thanks in equal proportion to ALP negativity and Abbott's own inability to keep his feet out of his mouth) but still fancy their chances with the Coalition rather than with Labor.

My recollection of Rudd vs Abbott last time is that Rudd got a hiding and was tossed out of office. Labor then got a new talking head (Juliar) against Abbott, who also got a hiding, and was again tossed out of office by the self same tossers.

Are we to believe that the "new Krudd" responsible for a raft of failed policies is now capable of leading a "new Labor" to responsible government.

Sorry, not all voters are that stupid.

SM,

What happened was that Gillard and Co shafted Rudd in a panic because (surprise, surprise) the polls had dipped for the incumbents.

She took over and Labor scraped in with the help of the Independents.

Her elevation actually lost Labor votes...and the slide has been continuing ever since.

If they hadn't got rid of Rudd at that time, I submit they would have done better in the 2010 election.