Of course, that’s not to tell of the complexity of how Howard sees himself.

But it tells something of the public, electoral, battle.

This, is in your face stuff, still up at the end of Saturday.

This coverage today lays the bedrock for next week’s context, as well. It has certainly cut through, but that doesn’t mean people are likely to be engaged, that is, to necessarily respond.

The tension in the Coalition must be building, too, which adds to potential problems and press hunger.

You’re right, though, that it all starts much later on. This is preliminary groundsetting, though some of it at the very least will linger on. Discipline and on-Rudd and on-Coalition attack issues rise up from this context. So it’s now about what further damage is done and to whom, until the economy and security come on down.

For a long shot idea, having considered this today, I’m going to throw down a wild card and say Howard will later focus not on the economy, but security, as his winning strike.

Behind this is the supposition that Rudd will hit Howard on the economy, reframe it and at the very least muddy the waters for Howard. The talk “the economy is going well enough to hand over” is quite powerful, coming from the commentariat along the way. There’s also a tiredness in Howard speaking of the economy, which could take some exemplary announcements to overcome. Talk of Howard resigning later also throws up the issue of who will be Treasurer.

So if Rudd and his team don’t crack or stumble, Howard will be under enormous pressure. Even if it’s lacklustrre from Rudd, I’m tending to wonder that Howard will go hellishly low with some divisive, fear, bolt-you-to-the-seat security dogwhistley filth which gets him home.

“John Howard has thrown the kitchen sink at Kevin Rudd, trying to do what he did to Mark Latham – destroy the man’s character. In trying to invent something with Kevin Rudd he has singularly failed. I think character is possibly going to be an election issue in this next campaign. But it’s not Kevin Rudd’s character.

“It is John Howard’s.

From Alan Ramsay.

cs writes,

. . . how many other areas of government are now occupied by individuals and interests who basically treat their responsibilities to the prime minister with contempt, confident he

And yes, there’s more than a whiff of the last days of the UK Tories in all this.

I’d be interested in how you view what’s going on.

My question, by the way, was rhetorically placed. The better time than Friday for Santoro to resign is Saturday, when it’s a sporty slow news night. This would allow the otherwise Howard shots to get a good run in the big press on Saturday, and keep the biggest news night, Sunday, free of the heavy damage as well. But they’ve gone and lost the lot.

I maintain the Rudd sledging will occur per previous comments, and would suppose this today might be regarded not only as indicative of serious systemic problems, perhaps even Howard’s personal loss of way for the moment until he pulls it back onto his territory, and that these things could be rectified more than sufficiently within the Coalition programme.

Do you feel, for instance, that there’s something amiss, systemically, in the Coalition process as the days unfold? Apart from the trashing madness of it, today, where do you sense the Coalition is at?

Did Howard blow his gasket, or is there more to this story? I’d like to see more columnists asking that question over the next couple of days.

I wondered whether it might have been strategically placed to avert the gaze from Debnam’s sobbing concession this morning – 8 days out from the NSW election. Extraordinary.

Howard as we know does two things when he’s facing it: he acts within minutes, or he awaits public mood. He’s immaculate with the media cycle, usually, and this today indicates systemic error.

It’s a gamble to be sure, but if it was announced on Sunday they could find themselves dogged by this issue all week with parliament sitting.

In considering some points by Chris, we could remember that Howard went hellbent on a massive policy implementation agenda since winning control of the senate, and would have been very thinly spread.

The fact Howard didn’t call Santoro sooner makes me wonder if he himself has taken full control of strategic duties and was out of touch being away. Who the hell knows. He’s the lost a minister, he’s lost enormous weight to the media cycle, and he’s lost the initiative. Clearly the Howard regime is cracking from serious problems within it.