BONWAG

It would have been nice to be rid of ‘old politics’, as Kevin promised, but at least we now have an election campaign behind us. It’s a decisive result which removes power from The Independents and puts it back with a political party that has some structural integrity and unarguable (if begrudging) electoral support.

If Kev had played the game, and not the man, with support from his team, he might have stood a chance, but a time in the wilderness will be good for Labor.

Let’s hope the country is still salvageable once Tony (and Tony’s replacement) have finished with it in a few years.

By then, my ears might have stopped ringing.

That didn’t take long. We’re only seconds into a new election campaign and Kevin Rudd is already reverting to Old Politics, even as he touts his New Way.

Says Kevin:

Tony Abbott has a different approach. He’ll bang on with the same negativity that we’re all sick of. He’s only got three word slogans because he doesn’t have the ticker to debate his real agenda.

It’s called Inoculation Theory: summarising and refuting your opponent’s arguments before they get to make them. It works if it’s done well, but if you’re going to throw in insults like ‘doesn’t have the ticker’, you’re not taking the high road. You just look asinine. This right here is exactly the sort of stuff people are sick of.

Also, to effectively rail against ‘three word slogans’, you’d do well to engage the treasury to do the math on your own slogan (‘A New Way’) or, maybe, just throwing it out there, forego one altogether.

If this is the voice of Kev’s New Politics, we have five long, screechy weeks ahead of us.