- Jun 19, 2006
- 11,129
- 21,759
- AFL Club
- Geelong
Based on what do you say this? Coalition polling was through the roof even when Abbott's personal numbers were rock bottom. People may not like him that much, but clearly they don't hate him enough to let it change their vote. It strikes me as what they are saying in ALP campaign HQ to reassure themselves.
The Liberals are attacking Rudd because last time around, when Rudd's personal approval ratings dived, so did Labor's vote. And it's turned out the same this time. Correlation, causation - who knows. But it makes it a decent strategy for them. Government not so much.
The Liberals are attacking Rudd because it's the obvious strategy if you want to present a very small target for criticism. You can criticise the government without putting anything on the table that can be attacked.
Rudd's got nothing to campaign on since he's thrown out Labor's record and Abbott's not been in government which doesn't give much to attack. The only real option is to attack Abbott personally.
In contrast Gillard had a basis to run a pretty effective campaign. There was a little while there when she was starting to get some momentum based on her policies. If she'd stuck with that tactic at the time I think she'd still be leader and would have a good platform to campaign on. The problem was that, whether it was her decision or her advisers, she changed tack to attack Abbott more. The misogyny speech in itself was very effective but it seemed her team was desperate to get that sort of knock-out punch continually.
Basically rather than being a campaign based on Abbott, Abbott, Abbott it should've been NDIS, NDIS, NDIS. Add in the NBN, Goneski reforms and finally getting in a carbon price with the negative campaign Abbott had run on it looking like a joke and it's a fairly solid record. Of course Abbott would point ot other, less positive things but at least Gillard could've basically said "we've delivered these. We've done a lot of good stuff. Do you really want to risk that by giving Abbott a shot?" At least then the question marks over Abbott actually contrast to a concrete platform of what Labor's achieved. The main reason Rudd's attacks on Abbott are useless is because nobody knows what he'll do either. Why not elect one leader who flies off the cuff and hasn't got a record to stand on when your other option is the same but with a party that's an absolute rabble. Right now there's no reason to vote for Rudd. At least Gillard could've presented a mildly plausible argument.