ALP Leadership

[Skull Cap]

They should never have knifed Rudd. Perhaps it would have been preferable in the long term to allow Rudd to go into that last election, lose and regroup from there. There is still many a long week before the next election, including the coming Budget, so Gillard is not dead in the water yet.

High-profile trade unionist Paul Howes, who publicly disavowed Mr Rudd the night before the Labor caucus dumped him as prime minister in June 2010, says changing leaders again is not the answer.

"It looks messy, it looks bad," he wrote in the Sunday Telegraph, noting the Rudd dumping did not go down too well with voters.

"Australians don't like parties who dump leaders. They view that as their right."

Ms Gillard refused to buy into Mr Howe's reflections about the 2010 leadership change.

When asked whether it had been a mistake to change leaders, she told reporters in Canberra: "I've dealt with all of these questions a million times in the past. I'm not intending to today."

There is some more here:

http://au.news.yahoo.com/queensland/a/- ... tells-mps/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[mantra]

They should never have knifed Rudd. Perhaps it would have been preferable in the long term to allow Rudd to go into that last election, lose and regroup from there. There is still many a long week before the next election, including the coming Budget, so Gillard is not dead in the water yet.

In retrospect it would have been better to leave Rudd alone as he was the one voted in, but there was such a huge dirt campaign on Rudd, that Labor panicked. Now they're considering knifing Gillard and it makes the party look very unstable. They have fallen right into Abbott's hands as he has been the main instigator in bringing them down. They did the same in NSW to Morris Iemma, then Nathan Rees and it proved nothing and made them even less popular. The same schemes that the party opposed so much under Iemma were eventually implemented anyway at even greater expense.

[Skull Cap]

You have me fuddled. What was the huge dirt campaign? I have not ever seen any dirt which stuck on Rudd. Yes, the ALP was polling badly, very badly. Not as bad as it is now under Gillard mind you. But where was the dirt on Rudd?

[mantra]

You have me fuddled. What was the huge dirt campaign? I have not ever seen any dirt which stuck on Rudd. Yes, the ALP was polling badly, very badly. Not as bad as it is now under Gillard mind you. But where was the dirt on Rudd?

He was hounded mercilessly about his super mining tax and his climate change summit - the opposition being the main antagonists. If Rudd hadn't been vilified and badmouthed to the extent he was - the party wouldn't have dumped him.

[skippy]

I agree with John Howard on this, the ALP should have left Rudd as leader, he was STILL AHEAD of phony tony AND he would have beaten phony Tony and we wouldn't have a hung parliament.
As for now, I think they need to dump Gillard or else they will become a minor party at the next election,BUT, the only option I can see that wont see them create another NSW disaster is to go back to Rudd. Lets face it, Rudd is more popular than anyone else, in particular phony Tony, who is still not polling much better as preferred PM than Gillard, someone the rightards tell us is the most hated PM of all time. The people don't want phony Tony, they just hate him slightly less than Gillard. If we're lucky,and the ALP dump Gillard for Rudd, we may well be get the best two options available at the next election, Rudd verse Turnbull.

[Neferti]

I agree with John Howard on this, the ALP should have left Rudd as leader, he was STILL AHEAD of phony tony AND he would have beaten phony Tony and we wouldn't have a hung parliament.
As for now, I think they need to dump Gillard or else they will become a minor party at the next election,BUT, the only option I can see that wont see them create another NSW disaster is to go back to Rudd. Lets face it, Rudd is more popular than anyone else, in particular phony Tony, who is still not polling much better as preferred PM than Gillard, someone the rightards tell us is the most hated PM of all time. The people don't want phony Tony, they just hate him slightly less than Gillard. If we're lucky,and the ALP dump Gillard for Rudd, we may well be get the best two options available at the next election, Rudd verse Turnbull.

Have you lost your marbles, Skip?