Egg on their faces

Friday, 20th August 2010

Win or lose, Tony Abbott has confounded Canberra and his Labor and media critics, argues James Paterson

The Labor Party’s machine men, who tore down Kevin Rudd and installed Julia Gillard, will be sweating on the outcome. If Labor loses the election – or if it is uncomfortably close for the Government – it will be mainly due to big swings against Labor in Queensland, where most pollsters are predicting the Coalition will win a number of seats. It’s clear that the Mark Arbib, Karl Bitars and Bill Shortens of the ALP underestimated the strength of the backlash that would result from brutally removing an elected Prime Minister. Julia Gillard’s symbolic announcement, mid-campaign, that she was discarding her spin doctors and campaign orthodoxy is a measure of how toxic these figures have become for the ALP’s public image.

Above all, this election has demonstrated that Tony Abbott, the man almost universally mocked and despised by the political and ideological left, has been fundamentally underestimated. Long derided by journalists and the ALP as ‘Captain Catholic’, ‘the Mad Monk’ and dismissed as a political headkicker, Abbott has demonstrated his leadership credentials. In the process, he’s revealed fundamental flaws in the media’s conventional political wisdom.

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Eric

August 20th, 2010 2:57am Report this comment

Great article - spot on!

All too often, the media get away with making predictions to which they are not held accountable.

The press gallery are the ones who are supposed to be clued in and switched on, yet their attitude towards Tony Abbott demonstrates just how out of touch they are.

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