Julia Gillard radiates hatred. Hatred for Tony Abbott, hatred of critics. Hatred, even, of Australian everyman. Had she stopped raving on about Tony Abbott a year ago, it’s very possible she would be competitive today. The other interesting thing going on in relation to Gillard is that the public will no longer tolerate women in public life hiding behind their own skirts and expecting special treatment. Anna Bligh found this out the hard way; that she had no special licence to hate Campbell Newman and the Newman family. The contemptuous reviews for Nicola Roxon proved the same. This is what has completely flummoxed the caucus. They believed there was no conceivable way A Woman could be bested by Catholic Tony, the boxer and one-time bovver-boy. Nobody important would allow it; not the ABC, not Fairfax, not the luvvies, not the literati. They had a dead cert. But when the numbers didn’t go their way, out came the hatred, replacing the giggly triumphalism. Remember the giggly triumphalism? ‘Catholic Tony and the virginity of his daughters, ahahaha, oh this is fruit off the sideboard.’ Now long gone. Gillard became outraged and the more outraged she became the further down she sank. JC once argued here – I thought insightfully – that she should have become a teacher and had a few children. She might have been happier and become a great headmistress.
