I think they hoped that voters had short memory, a fatal mistake and it all came crumbling down when they lost the 2007 election.
An opportune time to hear from Abraham Lincoln again that well quoted and ever-lasting words :
"If you once forfeit the confidence of your fellow citizens, you can never regain their respect and esteem. You may fool all of the people some of the time; you can even fool some of the people all the time; but you can't fool all of the people all of the time".
This is where Abbott will have a problem, in my opinion, when he applies for the job of the Prime Minister of Australia in the coming election: his flip-flopping of views, his inconsistency within a relatively short time on policy issues.
