Not sure that I agree with you there. The Libs were not doing well in the polls before Abbott became leader. He very quickly put them in a dominant position. In my opinion the only people who keep banging on about bringing back Turnbull are lefties who would never vote Liberal anyway. Although of course I am worried about the result, I expect it will be an utter bloodbath and this mob of useless hacks (along with the idiot independents and loony Greens who put them there) will be sent to the dustbin of history where they belong.
those idiot independants were the EXACT same people Abbott was arse kissing to become the head cheese ... in the end they took the lesser of 2 evils .... or so they thought
I know for a fact that you are wrong here, there are many traditional labour voters who would vote for Turnbull, but not for Abbott. The issue here are not the "lefties" as you refer to them (they will always vote labour or greens) but those that are left leaning, even those in the centre do not like Abbott and are having a hard time choosing where their future allegiance may lie. They don't like the current government, do not see the greens as a viable alternative (no real policies and miopic/idealistic in their political views) and can't stomach voting for Abbott.
True. So they messed up their one chance to not look like idiots. The result was entirely predictable from the outset. Katter was always going to back the Libs. Oakeshott was always going to back Labor, and Windsor was always going to back whoever offered the biggest bribes. After all, if his decision turned out to be a bad one (as it did) he was retiring after this stint anyway, so what does he care? The independents and Greens will be punished at this election, which will be almost as satisfying as seeing Labor turfed out.
Well maybe those people need to consider the bigger picture. In this country you are really voting for a party, not an individual. You are voting for a set of policies, or a broad ideology, and whether you "like" the person at the top shouldn't come into it. It's not Facebook, ffs. I also wonder if there are many Liberal voters who would vote for Abbott, but not Turnbull? I quite like Turnbull and would happily vote for him, even though some of his views are a little too left wing for me. Anything to get rid of this current mob... Regardless, I believe the Libs will win this election in a canter.
If only it was that simple. The leader does have a significant influence on the direction of the party (liberal party more so than labour, due to the factional bull*hit in the labour party) and I agree it isn't about "liking" someone, however the leader's own philosophies and ideologies do have relevance, particularly as the parties current political positions are not as far apart as many think or once were. Keating started that trend and Rudd confirmed it. The saddest part of all of that in this country is the incredible lack of bipartisanship. Unfortunately politics is bigger than the prospect of thoughtfully running the country. That was my original point....IMO if Abbott stays it will be closer than it should be....and it shouldn't be close.
I suspect that many peoples voting intention are determined by the leader they prefer, their actual vote simply enables that to happen, IE if you like a particular leader, you'll vote for the local member who represents that party. IMHO there is a strong personality cult in Aussie politics , which is exemplified by the Gillard vs Abbot debate. M
Mark Latham said that the only people who like Kevin Rudd are those who haven't met him, I can assure you from personal professional experience, the same is true for Malcolm.
Yep,and I reckon I'm stepping out with one of them! K's views(which I'm sure most of you THINK you know)have already been aired here. Particularly on one special Q&A programme.
I guess the hard question Darren is will I need to get Citizenship. Is it going to be that close that my one vote might help??? Poll perhaps?
My two cents worth! Great, nearly eight months of limbo. Business and Consumer spending and confidence will grind to a halt. Gillard doesn't care that the country will suffer, she just wants to give herself the best chance of being re-elected. I reckon she has called this so early to prevent Liberals going to Turnbull. Not that I think he will come back, and not that I am saying the Libs even need him. Although I have no doubt that even non Liberal voters would vote for a party led by Turnbull. Abbott has put the Liberals into a winning position and they will run with him. Gillard and her Left wing cronies should be thrown out and thrown out hard.
+1. I actually think once Abbott is in he will mature into a good PM. Part of his problem is honesty and how his views are twisted by the media. He has daughters, I've seen nothing he has said that I would not say about my own daughter, ie. her virginity is the ultimate gift and should be not just thrown away. I also support his views on gay marriage, because marriage IS a religious thing. It is nothing but that. People living together in a relationship have all the rights on married people nowadays. Therefore if we allow gay marriage then we need to alter our religions. Now this should probably happen because there is a lot of things that my priest says (when I go, which is rare) that is just bollocks ... but my that opens a huge can of worms! If we allow gay marriage, we should also allow female priests in the Catholic church (long over due) but unless we alter the religions we are making a mockery of the church. Is that what we really want to do? The problem we have is getting Abbott in. He needs to learn to say as little as possible because in his attempts to say the right thing and stick to his beliefs it comes out convolluted, and the press pounce ... because they are all wankers. Pete
And now that Craig is geeooooooooone................How will that effect things? Will the whole Slater and Gordan deal bite Fanta Pants in the arse later on??
But defacto relationships are legally bound now too ... or so I believe. The only reason I got married is because we wanted to have kids and also my step kids didn't like having to explain me to their mates as "Mum's er, boy friend". BTW we did not get married in a church. Pete