A year on, Rudd would do things differently

[Matilda]

AFTER first feeling bruised and numb over losing the prime ministership, Kevin Rudd has turned it into a ''learning experience'', acknowledging his critics were right about a number of failings.

In an important step towards reconciliation with the Labor caucus, the former leader said some ''painful'' conversations with colleagues and ''soul-searching'' had led him to realise three key mistakes. Mr Rudd approaches Friday's anniversary of his fall saying he is enjoying his job as Foreign Affairs Minister and intends to stay on.

http://www.smh.com.au/national/a-year-on-rudd-would-do-things-differently-20110617-1g876.html


And this "mea culpa" comes on the day when Nielsen, the most reliable poll, released figures showing that 60% of Australians would prefer Kevin Rudd as Prime Minister over Julia Gillard, with Labor's two-party preferred vote slipping even further behind the Coalition, 41% to the Coalition's 59%.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2011/06/18/3247266.htm


Labor has to face the fact that nobody, on either side of politics, likes Julia Gillard, and she looks set to lose the next election, even though there are many Liberal voters who don't really like Tony Abbott. How long before somebody in Labor gets the bright idea of replacing Gillard with Rudd?

[Esra Star]

1. On balance I still miss Kevin Rudd.

As far as I know Tony Abbott has not ever made a "Light on the Hill" speech.
I don't think he ever will. He does not know what a vision is.
The problem for Labor is that they have to sell hard concepts. You can only do this when your own party are with you all the way. When a few get cold feet and throw out good policy to win a few cheap votes, it looks like a deep division (mainly after the press hack into it with machetes).
So I vote for progress, even at the cost of losing elections.

[Matilda]

2. No Liberal leader has ever made a "Light on the Hill" speech.

Paul Keating once said that only Labor has heroes. He was right.

The problem with Labor's policies, I think, is that it's Julia Gillard selling them. She lacks charm, warmth, and passion, and she has the liability of being the person who held the knife when it went into Kevin Rudd's back. That makes her treacherous, and people just can't forget that. I know I can't, and I've always admired her as a parliamentary performer. But as a person, a real human being? Nah.