Election Wrap - 18 September

I’m not surprised the media gave him heaps.

I’ve never seen a Labor leader manage to get the journos as offside as Stanhope.

There comes a time when the whole “enemies list”, “us against the world” mentality really starts to tear you down.

If we’re going to call results on something like this debate, can we include disclaimers as re party alignment? Because some commenters have form for consistently being one-eyed around here.

Stanhope was positively smashed. Sure the journos did half hte job, but Zed and Smyth were all over Stanhope. The audience laughed him down when he me-tooed the Liberal policy for smaller classes. That set the tone for a bad day.

He was pounded for saying he believed in independence of the judiciary, when he sued the coroner.

He was mauled for saying it was an election on trust, after he promised not to close schools in the 2004 election and then closed them after.

The journos were all over him for personal traits – with separate questions on his temper; being thrown out of parliament; being unable to work with people; and copy-catting the Lib plan to reduce class sizes.

Zed and Stanhope had the same manner – Zed very rational and straight, Stanhope uncharacteristically quieter. Smyth was the only old school tub-thumper.

Stanhope can spin a clever line sometimes. Today he just didn’t have any sharp lines worked out, didn’t fight back, and was on the defensive for most of the debate. Whistle is right that Gallgher hid in her bunker and let Stanhope cop all the flak.

caf said :

verbalkint: Have there actually been any polls published?

I believe he’s saying that we can get a clue as to what the Libs internal polling is saying, by analysing what they are talking about most. Verbalkint is suggesting that because Zed continually talks about school closures, it is an issue that is cutting through for them.

verbalkint: Have there actually been any polls published?

I missed it. Does anybody know if I can get a look on the net somewhere?

dunno about saying ‘zed won’, rather i thought CM was hammered and, as whistle astutely puts it, he and the moderator were ‘losers’…

no-one won, certainly not entertaining mid day tv!

Zed was quit flat, didnt land any punches and repeated himself over and over about schools.

Now I know that the polls are saying that it is the only issues on which the Libs are getting any traction, but surely he can branch about a bit from that and try to make some other points.

Stanhope wasn’t great by any stretch of the imagination, and the moderator and journos were terrible – the questions were a joke! – but really, to say Zed “won” really is stretching the truth. He didnt say anything significant to show that he has vision or talent, and he missed his chance to lay int the government in any meaningful way.

Nothing he sad will cut through to an undecided voter.

I agree with astro. The losers were the moderator and Stanhope.

You would expect Stanhope could knock Zed apart, but Zed clobbered him in a pretty cool relaxed manner. Smyth was a real angry ant. I can’t remember if Katy even said boo. She was/ is/ always has been a non-event. I really don’t see how anyone can see her as the best Labor talent to replace Stanhope some day in the future.

and the moderator was a goose.