Abbott is more in the Howard mould - respected. You probably don't remember - Lazarus re-rising? Rudd was never respected - and nor is Mal.
Popularity is very fickle - as Rudd found out and as Mal is finding out. Substance and convictions is what people really respect not hypobole and fluff.
Mal just sits in his harbourside mansion expecting the plebs to bow down and worship his so called brilliance (which hasn't exactly shone through). Unfortunately for Mal, as Graham Richardson has pointed out, the mob has worked him out - he's out of touch.
