Abbott's (quiet) embarrassment

A funny thing happened today when I opened up the News Ltd tabloid - The Herald-Sun - I flicked through pages of waffle before hitting page 10, where I saw what I would've thought was a hugely embarrassing headline of Malcolm Turnbull rubbishing and (essentially) ridiculing his leader's "direct action" climate change plan read the follow up here .
Make no mistake, to have a senior front bencher of substance come out and make those remarks is devastating for Abbott....or at least it should be? And what page of the newspaper do you think a similar contradiction by Labor would've ended up on?
Unfortunately this incompetent Prime Minister doesn't have the ability to take full advantage of the opportunity presented, and once again it's been left to Greg Combet to do the heavy lifting on behalf of the Government.
And perhaps Combet's star will really get a chance to shine when Gillard (eventually) gets around to actually releasing the Carbox Tax detail? Combet may even in fact be in the position to almost single handedly save the Government from defeat, getting the detail (and sales pitch) right are THAT important.

more Combet, less Gillard?

After reading this defence of the Carbon Tax see here by Climate Change Minister Greg Combet, it left me wondering, what the hell is PM Gillard doing? Granted every time she opens her mouth you just want to cringe, but as the PM she should be articulating the arguments that Combet is making. Why isn't she out there saying things like;

•  Australia risked long-term economic damage if the proposed reform was abandoned
• If we let this chance pass us by, climate change policy will become the poisoned chalice of Australian politics for the next decade
• The consequences of this would be profound for all Australians, especially for those businesses that are now so reluctant to take responsibility for their actions and refuse to see beyond next year's prospectus
• The eventual cost of economic transformation would also become more expensive as Australia struggled to catch up with the rest of the world
• We would not learn how to live in, let alone how to prosper in a carbon-constrained world, while our trading partners would increasingly see us as industrial dinosaurs

But instead of this type of reasoned argument, all we get out of Gillard are comments about her favourite football team, and speculation about marrying the First Bum....what's his name?
We do live in barbaric times I think.