My guess is that the lass with the tattoos would say exactly the same thing to Tony Abbott if he had the same attitude as Julia.
Everything I've heard about Julia Gillard is that those who know her well - including Tony Abbott - think of her as a likeable, funny, thoughtful person. A nice person in her dealings with individuals. But when she has to talk to many rather than one, and especially on television where thousands, possibly millions are watching, she becomes stiff and wooden, her speech full of catchphrases and meaningless cant. The sort of phrases that sound good, but don't mean anything or offend anybody.
She becomes the voice of a PR team.
People pick up on this. They know it's not coming from the heart. It's shi*t intended for public consumption.
The real message Gillard is sending is that she likes votes, but not the voters.
And just look at the way she's gone about this whole Western Sydney thing. It's planned, it's staged, it's got every PR box ticked with the big launch event where only true believers attend, the "hotel next to Rooty Hill RSL", the carefully crafted sound bites.
It's about as genuine as a can of Clayton's.
Contrast this circus to Abbott and Hockey walking the same streets. There's no game plan, no staged stunts, no media director in the wings organising thousands of party faithful. They just go where they want and say what they feel.
People pick up on this.
When it comes to voting - or responding to a poll - people know there is no right or wrong answer. Their choice is right because it is theirs and because nobody is going to criticise them. Whatever they answer, it just goes into the pot and there's no personal comeback, no red mark, no comments from the teacher.
People vote with their hearts and not their heads.
That's why Gillard is going down. Because she is simply not connecting on a personal level.
That, and the fact that her government is a shambles, with Kevin Rudd smirking over her shoulder, Wayne Swan fiddling with his calculator, and Craig Thomson shoveling the brown stuff.
