Turnbull was a victim of a party far from being Liberal
He never stood a chance
Abbott who went on for years undermining Turnbull and the party should be under the spotlight too
The thread about a third force in politics highlighted my view the third force exists now
It is the small l Liberals, they still exist and still hurt at Turnbulls sacking.
Stop kidding ourselves,we know why he was dumped,he was small l Rupert came over to check on his stable of owned politicians.
And gave them their riding instructions dump Turnbull install Dutton
the small l,s had a say in that ignore the small ls at your peril

Philip S.,

I don't think that Alex Turnbull had much of an impact
at all.

Dr Phelps was a well known and highly respected member
in the community. She won on her own merit.

Politics used to be fought in town halls, in work places
and over barbecues. The battle for one of the most prized
Liberal seats in the country was waged on the internet
as much as in the physical world. Social media played a
vital role. On Facebook pages and in tweets about 380,000
messages were shared over the last month of the campaign -
voters in the wealthy Sydney electorate discussed and
argued about the best way to ensure the Liberal Party would
lose. They were disgusted at the dumping of their Prime
Minister.

It should also be pointed out that Mr Turnbull did not agree
with his son's take on things. It was clearly pointed out
on Q&A that Mr Turnbull had endorsed David Sharma's candidacy
but remained out of the fray subsequently both for the
candidate's sake and his own.

"My judgement was that given the circumstances - were I to be
campaigning in or be particularly visible in any way in the
Wentworth bye-election, It would be unhelpful to David Sharma's
prospects."

HenryL,

Malcolm Turnbull lost the Liberal Leadership in 2009
by only one vote. And he won the Leadership of the
Liberal Party - winning the ballot by 54 votes to 44.
So he must have been doing something right to be
the preferred Leader over Abbott.

Perhaps it was the fact that Mr Abbott had consistently
been behind the Opposition Labor Party in opinion polls.

The recent dumping of former PM Malcolm Turnbull is
probably due to an ideological divide that has been
growing since 2009 and is proving increasingly difficult
to bridge.

Nick,

The dumping of Malcolm Turnbull emphasises ideological
differences within the Liberal Party and will continue
to be volatile for Leaders in the future.

Dear Belly,

Malcolm Turnbull held views that were at odds
with his Coalition colleagues - in particular
on climate change, gay marriage and making
Australia a republic.

Who knows how many deals he may have made to win
support?

We'll no have to see how well our recent PM
does - and whether he can learn to back-peddle
just as fast?

very true Foxy those views, every one of them, are held by the small l Liberals who, one day will have to pick up the pieces of the big L Liberals fall.

nicknamenick Not one of your better comments "Dutton can't count numbers"

He did count the numbers and it worked he got the leadership spill, what he got wrong was some defected to another candidate.