What readers think of the Abbott soap opera

Maggie ward says:

07:25am | 05/04/10

Rudd seems to have a face for all occassions and can even to do fake saunters and feign concern and he is very bad at it all.

Ex Teacher says:

09:27am | 05/04/10

Spot on Andy, as with Abbott’s supposed comments re virginity.  The journos want to paint Abbott in a particular light and will continue to misconstrue any event in order to make the image stick.

Rudd has been wrong on so many policy issues but a story about Abbott wearing budgie smugglers is so much more important.

Futureproof says:

12:54pm | 05/04/10

The MSM just fall over themselves in order to protect Krudd.  Is it because they think that Kristallnacht will be inacted against them if Abbott wins.  Journalists today are of a poor standard to those of 20, 30 years ago.  They are cut and paste journalists.  It is easier for lazy journos to make up stories about Abbott, than to actually research the dog’s breakfast that is the current government.  There are so many stories that could potentially make the front page, like; DR Death invokes Goss Government Formula; or, Garrett works less, but is paid more; or, Is Bipola Nicola and the Health Reforms, an insulation bungle in the making?

Ben81 says:

02:16pm | 05/04/10

One of the comments quoted in the article - “It’s not about the language he uses so much as the fact that he just has no idea what he’s talking about. I hope the Libs keep him for a long time.” illustrates what’s wrong with a lot of people who unfortunately vote.  I mean, for one thing saying he doesn’t know what he’s talking about is garbage, whether or not you agree with him is another matter. 
The point though is why the hell would someone who actually cares hope that an opposition keeps a leader who ” has no idea what he’s talking about” and shamelessly tell everyone that you think of politics as a game?  It’s a big problem that some people are so politically unaware that they don’t know or care about the important role of an opposition.

Luke says:

02:29pm | 05/04/10

Barnaby gets moved out of finance and the MSM are still all over him, chasing him up and down corridors and up hill and down dale. Yet we have a Government Minister (GARRETT) who has completely stuffed his portfolio and cost the tax payers millions and millions of dollars because of his incompetence, gets his portfolio reduced, not sacked as he should have been and now not a word in the MSM about him? Go figure? Abbotts fitness and Joyce’s politcally incorrect speak is what’s important?????????????????

Rob says:

03:22pm | 05/04/10

Anyone who watches politicians on TV can see that the majority of them use the same head movements, the same hand movements and the same facial expressions.
Nod of the head - positive,
shake of the head - negative.
Hands to the left, hands to the right.
Forward thrust to emphasise.
Open hands - take my word for it.

Just look at Rudd & Gillard in action, and of course we had the song & dance man on parliament steps showing Tony Abbott the advantages of an acting course for idiots..
Now we have Kate Ellis in her hiking boots showing us what the well heeled dominatrix wears. Benny Hill would have had a field day with this bunch of wannabe comedians.

Chase Stevens says:

03:47pm | 05/04/10

I think Abbott is the biggest spin-master of the lot.

6c legs says:

05:00pm | 05/04/10

It’s just mind boggling (to me) how Mr Rabbits Fanz react when a right wing political blog even mildly questions “Their Chosen One”!

“Lefties” at least put some genuine wit into their comments, whereas the fundie-nutjobs just get plain-naisty - even towards those who support them.
Talk about confusing!
lol

Until he gets himself some policies, the ordinary Ozzie voter still has nothing in him to vote for…  it may seem bizarre to his fundie nutbar base, but Ozzies can appreciate his sporting achievements and still NOT vote for him.

Ross says:

05:54pm | 05/04/10

It’s wrong to call journalists left or right wing it’s up to their bosses to rate the stories they write and publish them . There are a lot of right wing influence peddlers on talk back radio to put their side of the story. Today’s cut and paste journalists are just lazy slobs who would not know a story if it buried them. So how could you expect a journalist to stand up toe to toe with an experienced politician?

Shane From Melbourne says:

05:50pm | 05/04/10

Yawn. Rudd and Abbott are the same. Both haven’t got a clue about economics, health etc, both will say anything to be PM and both more concerned with image rather than substance. At least Barnaby Joyce was entertaining.

acotrel says:

09:13pm | 05/04/10

’ At least Barnaby Joyce was entertaining. ’

He usually looks as though he’s been entertaining himself!

Seano says:

07:16am | 06/04/10

Apparently Abbott speaks for Jesus now. Labelling Abbott the “mad monk” or “Captain Catholic” might be ad hominem but he has provided the ammunition time and again.

Talk about arrogant, the bloke makes Latham seem humble.

Don Clark says:

07:20am | 06/04/10

I rarely agree with Gerard Henderson’s tireless toutings , however, on Senator Joyce, underneath the flummery of todays offering he does make these points with which I agree:

“He [Joyce] does not appear to be able to say “no” to a media appearance and is yet to constrain his language when a microphone is present. Yet his problem is not language or occasional bad taste but a lack of policy depth and a tendency to exaggerate. “
From http://www.smh.com.au/opinion/politics/
So much for the legend of the “straight talker”. Shot down by his own side. And conveniently putting paid to the “journos are lefties” tosh, too.

As for the Abbott soap opera, well, indeed, although most public figures have taken some sort of media management course. But Abbott’s problem isn’t so much style, offensive though he can be. It’s mainly lack of substance and -whatever the much spruiked “straight talk” - an over-reliance on exaggeration and plain spin. He just uses shorter words than the PM.

The net result of his posturing and finger-wagging is pretty easy to see, and not just from the helath debate fiasco. It’s showing up across the board in the main polls.

“Extensive analysis by pollster Andrew Catsaras of all available opinion poll results has found that the Rudd government stands to achieve what no other first-term government has done since World War II - win with an increased majority.

Mr Catsaras predicts Labor will increase its majority by eights seats to a total 91 seats, overturning the traditional decline that has afflicted first-term governments over the past 65 years.

The pollster has reached this conclusion by studying all poll results from the first quarter of this year, including The Age’s Nielsen polls, Newspoll, Galaxy, Taverner and Westpoll.”
http://www.theage.com.au/national/labor-on-track-to-increase-majority-20100405-rn4k.html

If Mr Abbott wants to exert some positive influence on the electorate and on good public policy for our country, he’d be well advised to try using plain truth and actual well-designed policy. So far, we’ve seen precious little of that. Instead all we get is endless confected ra-ra spin campaigns,  trotted out by him and by his lack-lustre colleagues who post on The Punch and elsewhere.

David J says:

10:11am | 06/04/10

Barnaby is funny, hes a real Aussie, he calls a spade a spade. Its just sometimes he mixes his spades and his rakes up. I vote Labor but I really like Barnaby he makes me laugh , hes your typically Bush person. Abott should have left him on the back bench, then it would not matter what he said, Abbott could have just said “oh well , he’s a National” Its Abbotts bad judgement that put Barnaby in the spotlight. Barnaby has certainly been a big help to Labor

Don Clark says:

11:05am | 06/04/10

The soap opera continues.

Turnbull has just announced he’ll not be standing at the next election. For all his faults, which were not few and quite visible, he was probably the most presentable and almost certainly the most capable of the senior Liberals.

Gra Gra says:

10:12am | 07/04/10

Robert Smissen, (Smitten?), of Rural SA, when you lie awake at night dreaming of your nominee for the ‘best PM since Federation’ you will remind yourself that he is married, won’t you. We all understand that there’s not a lot to do in “Rural S.A.” but you must curb your ardour.

Amy K. says:

07:20pm | 03/01/11

Abbott is pathologically dishonest; he couldn’t be sincere or honest if he tried; even with himself. This is a prerequisite of this mean, low-brow politics; voluntary ignorance, and it is abundantly evident in those radically right-wing conservatives surrounding and handling him. Abbott doesn’t need lessons in lying and pretending he’s something he’s not; fit and deserving of leadership. Abbott has been more then proficient in barefaced deception for years now. I find it hard to accept so many Australians lack the basic political and civics education necessary for enough political savvy to avoid being out-and-out mislead and manipulated by the ideologically driven campaign by Australian’s far Right conservatives to socially engineer Australian society. To engineer our society in accordance with their fantastic delusions concerning economy, society and ethical society. The Coalition, the corporate media duopoly, the foreign funded and inspired Right-wing think tanks are all seeking to undermine Australian democracy systematically through media misinformation, censorship and anti-democratic corporatist policy. All in an effort to secure here the Plutocracy and oligarchy that has benefited so few Americans so much and all but ruined ruined the country in the process. But these ideologues don’t care; in the Coalition’s, neo-con’s and neo-lib’s perfect world we won’t be citizens of nations with rights anymore, we’ll be serfs attached to one or more of a handful of essentially stateless, corporate empires. Your worth in society will be no more then that which a capitalist parasite can make off you. The Right will never abandon the state as they pretend, they need it to impose their will violently when the market fails to, through their paramilitary police at home and army abroad. The Right will always need the state to pickup externalities so the workers can be made to pay for what they’ve been brainwashed into thinking is for their benefit. When the Right talk about democracy, fairness and justice; they’re spinning crypto-fascism. In the historically Right-wing ideologies that guide this minority and it’s puppets democracy a pleasant illusion; a privilege afforded us only by some secret, underlying fascist state that systematically violates every democratic value conceivable.