Costello is stuffed now, Lacking the courage, once again, to challenge for the leadership himself, Costello egged on Nelson to call the spill early because he wanted the weak leader to stay in place until close to the election when a desperate party would finally turn to him. Once again Costello showed that his political judgement is virtually non-existent. The defeat for Nelson should be seen as a defeat for Costello.
Turnbull won't be going away and as he probably knows more about economics than Rudd, Swan and Tanner put together (and certainly a lot more than Nelson) he's going to look a lot better up against them than Nelson did.
2UE radio host, and angry ant, Steve Price, whose wife works for Hockey, told his listeners this morning that he had it on good authority that Nelson would win easily. Go steve. Hockey apparently left some of his colleagues confused about who he was supporting. Might be a good time for Joe to head towards NSW state politics.
Turnbull was pessimistic last night (as reported by Laurie Oakes on Nine this morning) but some votes apparently moved this morning. Not Jamie Briggs though the new member for mayo, and former Howard adviser, apparently voted for Nelson, whoops.
Deputy leader, Julie Bishop looked over the moon at the media conference after the ballot this morning may have helped convince some wavering WA representatives to join the Turnbull camp and the majority of the front bench (according to Sky) supported Turnbull.
The election of Turnbull is a real shot in the arm for the Liberal Party which is already feeling resurgent after the surprise win in WA, the big swing in NT and the ongoing fiasco which is the NSW ALP Government.
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