Dale HughesLibs shoot themselves in the foot
February 18th 2008 11:09
Category: No Category
[B]The decision by many of John Howard's former ministers to publicly declare their wavering support during the 2007 campaign will do liittle to help rebuild the party now. dB]
Last year's election loss was shattering for the Coalition, leaving it in the political wilderness from border to border across the country. Wall to wall Labor dominating the political scale while a party seemingly out of touch with the contemporary voter attempts to rebuild itself.
It is difficult to understand the thinking behind former government ministers Joe Hockey, Peter Costello, Andrew Robb and Alexander Downer when they decided it might be a good idea to publicly decalre the disunity and uncerainty that poisoned the Howard Cabinet during the 2007 campaign.
Their appearance on Four Corners tonight will do little to help the party now. What good could possibly come by criticising John Howard for not standing down from the leadership?
Their pointless excercise tonight will cause more nightmares for the party. Tonight not only revealed the disunity in the party room during a vital election campaign, it showed how the former government consistently mislead the media regarding the leadership issue.
Questions of political trust and integrity in the Liberal Party only gives Labor the fuel needed to set doubts about the Oppositions credentials as a candidate for government.
The party should put last years crushing defeat behind them and move on. The fact is the Government's longevity and the voters disdain for WorkChoices was the electoral poison that killed the 11 year Howard term. A leadership change wouldn't have helped the situation. It was Howard's policies that the people voted against, not his style or his personality.
Rudd provided the voters with an alternative to unpopular reforms being introduced by Howard. He fought the election on a conservative agenda, similar to the government, so that voters could see the possibility of some form of change but not a great deal. The former government had lost touch on issues to do with working families and climate change, and history should show that was the reason for its election defeat.
Brendan Nelson has the toughest job in politics. Rebuilding a party that is consistently turning its back on itself since last years loss. The more voters hear about how Howard's ministers wanted him to resign, the more they will thank themselves for outing a government that clearly had lost its sense of unity and purpose.
They need to stop discussing the reasons why and start addressing where the party will go from here. The Rudd government has got a tough term ahead of it and if the Opposition is diligent enough to exploit the imminent economic challenges it will give itself a much greater chance in regaining the support of lost voters. Slagging and backstabbing their old leader, a man who led the party to four consecutive election victories, will do nothing to create the unity and sense of purpose required to for them to return as a political force.
Last year's election loss was shattering for the Coalition, leaving it in the political wilderness from border to border across the country. Wall to wall Labor dominating the political scale while a party seemingly out of touch with the contemporary voter attempts to rebuild itself.
It is difficult to understand the thinking behind former government ministers Joe Hockey, Peter Costello, Andrew Robb and Alexander Downer when they decided it might be a good idea to publicly decalre the disunity and uncerainty that poisoned the Howard Cabinet during the 2007 campaign.
Their appearance on Four Corners tonight will do little to help the party now. What good could possibly come by criticising John Howard for not standing down from the leadership?
Their pointless excercise tonight will cause more nightmares for the party. Tonight not only revealed the disunity in the party room during a vital election campaign, it showed how the former government consistently mislead the media regarding the leadership issue.
Questions of political trust and integrity in the Liberal Party only gives Labor the fuel needed to set doubts about the Oppositions credentials as a candidate for government.
The party should put last years crushing defeat behind them and move on. The fact is the Government's longevity and the voters disdain for WorkChoices was the electoral poison that killed the 11 year Howard term. A leadership change wouldn't have helped the situation. It was Howard's policies that the people voted against, not his style or his personality.
Rudd provided the voters with an alternative to unpopular reforms being introduced by Howard. He fought the election on a conservative agenda, similar to the government, so that voters could see the possibility of some form of change but not a great deal. The former government had lost touch on issues to do with working families and climate change, and history should show that was the reason for its election defeat.
Brendan Nelson has the toughest job in politics. Rebuilding a party that is consistently turning its back on itself since last years loss. The more voters hear about how Howard's ministers wanted him to resign, the more they will thank themselves for outing a government that clearly had lost its sense of unity and purpose.
They need to stop discussing the reasons why and start addressing where the party will go from here. The Rudd government has got a tough term ahead of it and if the Opposition is diligent enough to exploit the imminent economic challenges it will give itself a much greater chance in regaining the support of lost voters. Slagging and backstabbing their old leader, a man who led the party to four consecutive election victories, will do nothing to create the unity and sense of purpose required to for them to return as a political force.
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Comment by Damo
For the Sake of Argument
My Apologetics
Liberals lost because of bad policy and leader that went power mad as soon as he had the Senate.
Workchoices was only the most financially threatening police but there were many others.