“There is a real danger at present, because of the rolling political controversy about myself, that Mr Abbott is simply able to slide quietly into the office of the prime ministership,” declared Rudd, in his first press conference since his PM ousting.

Yes, despite pledging to Phillip Adams on Wednesday night that he didn’t seek to serve as a distraction on the trail, Kevin Rudd blew Tony Abbott’s health announcement out of the water yesterday with a press conference announcing his intention to hit the hustings.

There is talk that Gillard and Rudd will be out and about together on Sunday, stealing attention from Abbott’s Liberal party campaign launch that night. But is Rudd the hero stepping in to save  Gillard’s campaign or a ghost who’ll continue haunt her?

Rudd’s reinventing himself, writes Phillip Coorey in The Sydney Morning Herald: “In this saga so far, Rudd has been the martyr and the villain. Now he wants to be seen as the white knight.”

What do we do with three leaders? asks Paul Kelly in The Oz: “…Rudd presents himself as the saviour of Labor’s fortunes — an event of far-reaching and unpredictable consequences. There has never been an election like it. With each day it’s more about Kevin.”

The Oz editorial doubts his messiah-like abilities: “Casting Mr Rudd as Labor’s saviour stretches credulity.”

Perhaps Gillard should have kept him hidden? “Unfortunately for the prime minister, Rudd’s campaign is likely to be no less destructive than when he was kept in the background,” says Dennis Shanahan in The Oz.

Hogging the spotlight won’t impress Gillard, argues Tony Wright in The Age: “Rudd had stolen another day from an election campaign with only a bit more than two weeks to run.”

Bringing in Rudd is just proof that Gillard is desperate to get the focus back on Abbott, says Dennis Atikins. “That has been Labor’s core strategic aim — to shape the debate around Abbott — and getting Rudd to join in this effort is the last shot they’ll have at hitting the target,” he writes in The Courier Mail.

At least he’s trying. “One figure close to Ms Gillard claims Mr Rudd is, in his way, genuinely trying to make peace. If he thunders around Queensland looking like a prime minister, so be it,” reports Katharine Murphy in The Age.

Many in the commentariat thought Rudd’s slick performance underminded Gillard.

“Throwing off his white sheet before slipping into his Superman underpants, Rudd appeared to be saying: ‘Stand back, Julia, and watch how this is done,” says Samantha Maiden in The Oz.

The Age editorial agreed: “…Rudd delivered a performance so prime ministerial that anyone who had been in a coma for the past couple of months could be forgiven for thinking he was still in the top job.”

Was he proving himself as a better leader than Gillard? “Albeit not in so many words, Rudd was saying, ”Look, Julia isn’t up to this fight.” Which she may not be,” writes Michelle Grattan in The Age. “The woman who was installed because Labor powerbrokers thought Rudd could not win the election is now struggling to hold things together and cling to power.”

It’s not just Gillard who needs to be worried, warns Andrew Probyn in The West Australian: “Kevin Rudd has made the first dent in the duco of Tony Abbott’s election year Hummer.”

Rudd wasn’t taking questions yesterday, but The Courier-Mail has five for him, including “Do you want to be prime minister again?” and “Do you trust Julia Gillard and Wayne Swan?”

All this focus on “the Prime Minister, the Opposition Leader and the prime narcissist” is taking the spotlight off “the bit players who could hold the balance of power in the lower house: the Greens and the independents,” writes George Megalogenis in The Oz.

The polls might not be positive for Gillard but Peter van Onselen offers a historical perspective in The Oz, that “of the 25 federal elections Australia has had since World War II the government of the day has won nine out of the 10 closest results.”

Just in case you were wondering how the campaign was playing out in different papers around the nation, The Oz has an interesting article, where it counts how many negative and positive articles about the leaders have appeared in the papers. “The Australian has been more critical of Tony Abbott than The Age. The Herald Sun in Melbourne appears to be treating well the hometown favourite Julia Gillard but all newspapers around the country have been mostly negative of both leaders in this election campaign.”

“A strange narrative has developed during this federal election campaign: that it is somehow boring,” notes Leo Shanahan in The Punch, as he offers up 10 reasons why it is not.

Who said it was boring? Phillip Coorey nicely sums up the mood of the day: “This election campaign may have been uninspiring but it is a long, long way from boring.”