Sunday, July 25, 2010

Election 2010: Day 9 (or the debate that we’ve already forgotten)

And so there was a debate.

Did it change anything? Of course not.

Who won? I’ll give it to Tony. He scored some points on the “waste” of the stimulus (demonstrating what I have long said that Rudd and Co were USELESS at selling the performance of the stimulus – it kept us out of a recession and yet people have swallowed the debt and deficit line). And he wasn’t completely hated. So well done – I guess he did learn from the Health Debate.

The women controlling the worms did hate him; but the blokes didn’t really love Julia either – especially when she talked about defeating Rudd (perhaps the thought of a women defeating a male just hurt  their egos a bit, because in my experience those who have expressed most reservations with the dumping of Rudd has been women).

Overall the worm was probably on average spent more time in the positive zone higher for Abbott than for Julia, but interestingly her final address was viewed more positively than Abbott’s.

But does anyone care? No of course not. It won’t change a vote. The election is not for 4 weeks. By then you really think anyone will remember anything said tonight? I can’t remember what either of them said 4 weeks ago, and I’;m a political junkie. 99% of the population are not. By the time Masterchef finishes it’ll all be forgotten. 

And this debate was easily the worst I can recall (well at least going back to Ray Martin asking Paul Keating and John Howard what was the price of a carton of milk).

The issues that got a look in – asylum seekers, immigration, the rolling of Kevin Rudd, climate change, Afghanistan and then (just for something weird) the stimulus.

Health? Education? Infrastructure? The economy? Nup

And the questions were pretty lame as well. Julia Gillard was asked if she had been advised of an exact date by which it will be too late to act on climate change. Seriously. I thought it was common knowledge that 1:30pm 24 May 2018 was the due date for action.

Seriously, these were the three best journos in the country?

Chris Uhlmann’s question on what Julia had said behind closed doors to Kevin Rudd was one appropriate for the 7:30 Report but not for a debate about policy for the next three years. He showed a complete lack of understanding of the occasion, and like an annoying umpire in a footy game, thought the debate was all about him.

Maybe he was just pissed that Speers got to moderate it and not him.

Mark Riley on Channel 7 said there were no losers which meant Tony Abbott won. I do like a good bit of solipsism with my political analysis.

For me? I’m watching Masterchef with the rest of the country, unable to believe that Callum doesn’t know the middle pot contains Hollandaise sauce.

It will be interesting to see how the debate rates. In 2007 it was highly anticipated, and highly watched. If anyone but the most politically interested survived till the end, I’d be much surprised. I even found it a struggle.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Laura Tingle had a really good question about further stimulus if necessary. Both dodged the question.

Anonymous said...

ARE YOU KIDDING OR IS YOUR TONGUE IN YOUR CHEEK WITH YOUR EARS?

BUT-BUT-BUT 'FAIR DINKUM' ABBOTT WAS A MECHANISTIC CARDBOARD CUTOUT STAY ON MESSAGE PUPPET OF LOUGHNANE AND WHOEVER ELSE IS MASTER MINDING THE HYSTERICAL TEA-BAGGER RIGHT WING SHRILL-NESS THAT THE LIB CAMPAIGN HAS DECSENDED TO AND THAT BIG MEDIA IS COMPLICIT IN PERPETUATING AS SOME SORT OF COGENT NARRATIVE.

I LOVE YOUR BLOG GROG BUT YOU'VE BEEN EPONYMOUSLY SELF IMBIBING IF YOU THINK THAT TURN BACK THE BOATS MANTRA WAS A WIN. EVEN MY 22 YEAR OLD WAS PISSING HIMSELF LAUGHING EVERY TIME HE REPEATED IT - AD NUASEUM.

THAT IMBECILE ON SEVEN SAYING IT WAS A DRAW, AND BY DEFAULT WAS A WIN FOR ABBOTT BECAUSE HE DID BETTER THAN EXPECTED IS BOOTLSTRAPPING SELF SERVING WOMAN HATING RUDD HATING NEO CON CLAPTRAP OF THE HIGHEST ORDER. TALK ABOUT CLUTCHING AT STRAWS - THEY'RE CLUTCHING AT A STRAW MAN.

SORRY ABOUT THE CAPS LOCK BEING STUCK ON, NOT SHOUTING, JUST CANT LOOK AT THE SCREEN & TYPE - JUST LIKE THE WORM TONIGHT - COULDN'T STOP WATCHING THAT SO MAYBE I WASN'T LISTENING TO THE WISDOM OF CAPTAIN CATHOLIC!!

AGAIN, LOVE YOUR WORK, BUT MAYBE YOU NEED TO RETUNE YOUR PERCEPTO METER....

Jaeger said...

I watched Seven and my partner watched Nine for the worms. Seven had the twisty knob controller this time, Nine the keypads - I think it was the other way around last time?

We tried to compare the two, but the feed into Canberra (all channels) was delayed at least 10 seconds which ruined the experiment. Hopefully Poss will summarise it again!

The male worm on Nine stopped working at one point - I think the men had lost interest and were trying to text their mates for the latest on the footy/Masterchief. No such problems on Seven, but having to adjust for the sexual biases was annoying - I think both sides were trying to outdo each other to "send a message". Only one worm next time, please.

The winner? Women, for not being thin-skinned and insulted by words like "naive". Toughen up and get over it men - you let the side down!

Roger said...

What debate?

Anonymous said...

I'm with Billy Connelly, I hate beige people. Laura Tingle is always a class above her peers.
Laura for PM. Where is the courage. PIP

Jaime said...

I stopped watching channel 7 a long time ago, but I always thought Riley was a Liberal lover. Or maybe just a Howard lover.

I could only bring myself to watch 10 minutes of it, total. It was so very, very meh.