The Age pronounced:

"Deputy Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce is facing a potentially dangerous, multi-pronged attack in his seat of New England, with the challenge of Tony Windsor to be augmented by a high-profile candidate representing the Greens."

What they forget is:

http://www.abc.net.au/news/federal-election-2013/guide/neng/

Where Barnaby got 54% of the vote in his own right with Labor getting 11.9% and the greens 4.6%, and even with preferences labor only scraped together 29.3%

This is a conservative country town, and with Tony Windsor having aligned himself so closely with Labor and the greens, in my opinion, is likely to have alienated the constituents that previously supported him.

While the journos from Fairfax and the ABC are looking for a titanic battle between TW and BJ, I feel the game is over before it started.

According to articles on the web Barnaby Joyce
tells us he is looking forward to the challenge of
the re-emergence of his long-time
political rival, Tony Windsor.

Whereas Tony Windsor says he's fully aware it will
be a David and Goliath event.

Mr Windsor's political journey was one where he
started as an Independent and ended up as a member of
the Labor-Green-Independent Alliance.

Mr Windsor held New England for 12 years and played
kingmaker for the Gillard Government before bowing
out of federal politics in 2013 citing health and
family issues.

We're told that - Mr Windsor's widely anticipated move
pits him against one of the most senior members of the
Turnbull Government against a highly successful independent
who has based his career on fighting for local electoral
issues.

It will be interesting to see if he succeeds.

Only a total idiot, with tendencies to self flagellation could possibly vote for anyone who helped inflect Gillard & her idiots on the country.

Of course the US voters showed just such tendencies when they actually returned Obama for a second term, so anything is possible, even in what should be a sensible country electorate.

We know Turnbull will be hoping to get rid of Barnaby, & he would find a fellow traveller in the disgusting Windsor. We have to make sure we get rid of Turnbull at almost any cost, but not by electing Windsor.

We live in interesting times, as the old Chinese curse goes.

Shadow and Hasbeen, you seem to have already forgotten that the alternative was Tony Abbott!

Many of Tony Windsor's constituents who were angry at him at the time have since apologised to him after they saw what having Abbott in power was really like.

Barnaby Joyce once stood up for the interests of regional Australia, but nowadays he just toes the party line. He has aligned himself too closely with the interests of coal miners. Tony Windsor wants to ensure coal mining does not adversely affect farming.

As for Obama, his reelection was unsurprising as the alternative was Mitt Romney.

Aidan I'll take Tony Abbott in preference to any others on offer at the moment. That goes double for the likes of Rudd, Gillard or Turnbull, all total incompetents losers.

Anyone Who has not seen the stupidity of bringing Turnbull back by now must be totally blind.

SM,

"Where Barnaby got 54% of the vote in his own right with Labor getting 11.9% and the greens 4.6%, and even with preferences labor only scraped together 29.3%"

Windsor's first preference vote count in New England at the last 3 elections he contested:

2004 - 57.27%
2007 - 61.94%
2010 - 61.88%

And that's before the Oz electorate got to experience what a vacuous load of bad policy-no policy blatherers were the LNP in govt.