but I think to an extent they're running with what people want. It's a fact that Julia Gillard is simply disliked by a majority of voters. I don't believe it's sexism, because for a short time she had a good run as our first female PM, but voter disappointment set in very quickly. She's a very poor communicator, but unlike Howard, who was also poor in that regard, we still don't know the real Julie or what she believes in. We only know what she says she believes, but as the supposed left-wing socialist who sold her soul to the right-wing to take the top job before her time, who knows what the reality is?
And to be fair, the Australia Day Kerfuffle does seem to have been the work of her own team. Abbott was initially given a poor run in the media for his comments on the tent embassy, because it was claimed that he said it should be torn down, when what he said was that it was time to move on. But joining the dots as far as we are able, it looks as though Tony Hodges and possibly some other bright sparks in the PM's office thought it would be a good idea to rouse up the Aboriginals and get them to go after Abbott during the ceremony at the Lobby. It was childish and very stupid, and completely rebounded on the PM. You can only wonder where she finds these people, and why she keeps on listening to them, because they don't serve her well. You could be forgiven for thinking that they're Opposition moles bent on destroying her.
I've been watching the PM again today in Question Time, giving the Opposition a few smart smackdowns and more than holding her own against the likes of Julie Bishop and Christopher Pyne (Abbott seems to be keeping a low profile this week). But we never see this feisty woman out and about in public, speaking off the cuff as she's quite capable of doing. She will revert to the robot repeating the endless phrases of "working families", "hard work", "strong economy", etc., boring the pants off anyone who cares to listen. I'm sure it's her advisers, telling her to stay on message, and never, ever letting the public see who she really is. I think people know this, and it's not what they want. She already comes to us flawed by the fact that she knifed her leader, but had she been the spirited performer she can be, she may not be facing such a hostile press. Kevin Rudd wasn't so popular with the media that they were prepared to dislike his successor on principle. I think they gave her an easy time at the beginning, but the gloss wore off very quickly, and she and her advisers are to blame.
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