Gimme a break. The guy’s been writing stories like this for six months. Rudd forgets the tax thresholds and somehow that makes up for Howard’s cabinet losing confidence in his leadership? Suuure.

I don’t know who’ll win the election and I don’t intend to engage in pointless speculation but the endless inane ‘analysis’ by the likes of Shanahan has brought the credibility of the MSM pundits to a new low. It’s a perfect example of what Nicholas alluded to in his earlier post today.

Howard is looking dangerous again. How crook it is that our PM swings up or down with the polls, and governs or not so with them as well. This poll driven governance surely is beyond ridiculous now. That there has been a correction in the polls is the reason Howard can now feel he can stand stronger in the party room and his words will be heard there at least to some extent. That’s his necessity, moreso than how the party actually feels about the leadership issue being “dealt with”.

Some things against the Coalition team thing are: Costello has openly stated he supports the policy platform as it stands. So no backtracking there to make anything more palatable. After the huffing about team – and Howard looks to be able to gain a lot of ground on this, bringing in the Swan/Gillard/Smith et al factors, etc – at the end of the day, the public will be voting on either policy or personality, and they are not expressing acceptance of the former (in the main) or Costello (minus the makeover now denied).

Who will be LNP Treasurer is still yet to come to play.

It’s going to be messy.

I realise this is parody, but sheesh, I can read the Australian for the real thing, and get more of a laugh.

Seems to me the only doubts here belong to the Liberal Party, and same for the only media speculation.

I am sorry, but as someone who would like the end of the Howard government all these comments in the blogosphere that ‘Ratty is stuffed’ ‘Howard has lost and he knows it’ irritate me somewhat.

I am no expert in polls, but I am a bit distrustful of polling that shows that a large percentage of people are now committed to vote for one person or another. They may change their minds the morning of the elections, or Rudd makes a huge clanger a la Hewson with his Birthday Cake who knows?

Elections are notoriously difficult to win in Australia and really I can’t see it that it is in the bag just yet.

I always thought that the level of support in the polls for the ALP were unrealistic, and a drift back to the Coalition would be inevitable.

Whether this drift will get Howard back into government remain to be seen.