After a rather sensational drubbing on the weekend the Liberals are mid finger-pointing and re-branding already...
The Blame Game
Unfortunately this game is one pioneered by many brave souls who are now on their way out of parliament and most fingers are pointed towards the little chap who stayed at the party even though the other guests were starting the washing up in their jammies. To be fair this was probably a big factor in Bennelong, but from what I saw in Wentworth and other seats the "brand" the Libs were campaigning on was their local candidate rather than JWH.
There is some indication by Liberal supporters that people got "relaxed and comfortable" (sounds familiar?) and started taking the economy for granted. I'd love to say this is the case but I think Rudd's economic conservative mantra did in fact comfort a lot of people who then wanted to know what *else* politics had to offer except economic policy - to do the ALPies credit on this the answer involved: health, education and environment - not a bad trio. I personally suspect that there has been somewhat of a realisation of the fact that the "resources boom" actually has little to do with the Howard government but was attributable to a complex mix of geography and market forces - as far as economic management goes selling coal when pretty much everyone in the world wants it isn't exactly the equivalent of sub-zero water to Inuits.
The New Opposition:
With the Liberal opposition candidates dropping like flies I was slightly concerned that these incredible predictions were coming before their time. Now it seems they've stopped hiding behind each other and hat and gauntlet throwing is the order to the day.
Brendan Nelson is an unusual decision to say the least - a good argument about why the irrational beast of "caucus numbers" should probably be tamed. His merits as a contender have been admirably covered by another blogger far wittier than myself:
The third contender is outgoing Defence Minister Brendan Nelson, who used to be a member of the Labor Party, used to be president of the Australian Medical Association, and used to wear an earring. None of these things apply today, and in the current leadership tussle his main attributes would appear to be his unbelievably monotonous voice and his resemblance to the dad from Thunderbirds. Although history is against him as nobody has won an election by convincing the voters that he is a heroic marionette since Andrew Fisher in 1910.
Julie Bishop scares the bejeezus out of me and I'm a little nervous of saying anything negative about her as I'm sure that given she doesn't blink she can see the whole world. Julie, you're better than Bronwyn...
Alas, the combinations we might have had:
Bronwyn Bishop/Tony Abbott : The beehive & the mad-monk - they could be a postmodern folk-electro outfit
Alexander Downer/Alex Hawke: One in fishnets the other a nutty hard Righter brought together by the party they love and both being called Alex
I could go on but I'd best not.
xx
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