Gillard reaches new lows

Julia Gillard’s Annus Horribilis reached new lows after the High Court decision on the Malaysian asylum seeker swap deal, and the media immediately went into overdrive with leadership speculation, with not just one Banquo but two appearing in the forms of Kevin Rudd and Simon Crean, along with Stephen Smith, Combet and Shorten and almost everyone else. The most obvious choice is of course bringing back Latho and then he and Abbott can sort it out in the ring. An equally predictable result, but at least entertaining.

Chris Bowen seems to have been ruled out as a leadership contender, at least for now, and the silver lining for the Government was Craig Thomson slipping down the list to sixth, while most of the premiers also moved down the list as the focus came firmly back to Canberra.

The exception to that was Barry O’Farrell and his Treasurer Mike Baird, bringing down a fairly sizeable deficit in their first Budget, most of the money going to try and prove to all those first time Liberal voters in Sydney’s west that there will be actual transport improvements well underway by the next election, some of them maybe even finished

There was impassioned talkback and online chatter about Julia Gillard this week with a few fans and many haters. Kevin Rudd leapt into the list with mainly favourable comments, but surely they and certain journos must be dreamin’. Either that or they simply don’t understand politicians’ egos.

The best hurdler in the world, I do hope she rang the PM and gave her some tips.