smokin' poll

it's a case of another nanosecond, another poll as pundits, punters and every other politically exhausted australian drag their feet towards official election time. whenever that might be. if a poll surfaces querying the public's attitude towards polls, rg will not be surprised.

what do we learn from todays age/neilson findings (oz politics' killer graphs here)? according to michelle grattan, labor's vote has dropped "significantly" yet they're still hogging a "commanding" lead. rg loves poll-speak and challenges any pollster to publish findings without using these two words. bottom line is, there doesn't appear to be too much news. it's pointless making a political mountain out of slight poll movement; polls, like life and people's interest levels, ebb, flow and adjust. headlines like this and this banging on about 'hope' for the pm are, in rg's view, just shy of sensationalist. if there is one thing someone knee-deep in the political game will always tell you in a soundbite, it's that there is always hope. to suggest it's all over before the election has even been called is ridiculous.

there is one substantial point rg takes from today's breakdown: generally, the public aren't overly concerned with howard's or rudd's age, the likelihood of the pm satisfying a full term if re-elected, or status of interest rates under either candidate. why is this heartening? rg suggests it indicates, if only on an embryonic level, that voters aren't getting blindsided by surface mud-slinging. perhaps they realise that the reserve bank has more control over interest rates than the pm, and there's more important issues to be concerned with than who has more crow's feet and is more inclined to stumble when minus zimmer frame.

rg feels the up-and-up of recent polls is over and we're now looking at a more realistic, considered public opinion. this is where the game gets interesting, and we get to see how people are actually thinking, not just reacting. hopefully extreme love him/hate him attitudes are mellowing so when actual policy detail gets trotted out it's received and considered rather than dismissed by virtue of the party presenting it. as a weary parental politico mumbled recently, "if there is one thing someone knee-deep in the political game will always tell you in a soundbite, it's that there is always hope." hear, hear.