Cater in denial

The most hilarious thing in the papers this morning is the irritating wannabe political culture warrior Nick Cater telling the country that we don't know how lucky we are to have Abbott as our PM.  Maybe he didn't come up with the headline, but here it is:  Tony-haters can't cope with reality.

The spin is of cyclonic intensity as he claims Australians don't like Abbott because Labor under Rudd and Gillard has ruined politics in this country.  (Yes, seriously.)

And Cater has his own problem with reality when he claims electricity prices have dropped 10% since the carbon "tax" went.  In fact, his own paper was reporting only a few days ago that the average price reduction was 7.31%, after Abbott promised a 9% drop.   That's some rounding error for Cater.   (Particularly as it appears clear in the report that some electricity drops were only around 5%.)

Cater also talks up jobs growth, when the unemployment rate since the change of government actually looks like this:


source: tradingeconomics.com

Apparently, we should also be grateful to Abbott for causing the Arabs to dramatically drop the price of petrol.    Yes, that makes sense [not].

Cater even has a go at his brothers in arms at the likes of the IPA and Catallaxy for attacking Abbott from the Right.  Yes, it's a real tragedy, Nick.

Meanwhile, I just saw Abbott give a lacklustre morning interview on Sunrise, flanked by Australian flags.  (The background to Abbott's media appearances always appear to be some attempt at subliminal messaging - remember all the Christmas trees behind in December?)

I think everyone - even Cater - knows the truth:  Abbott is just one stupid comment or decision away from losing leadership.   At his current rate of making those, he probably has less than a month...

Update:   Judith Sloan notes that it's not wise for the government to brag about jobs creation, and thinks the "small business" tax cut is a bad idea.  (Yes, it's a worry:  she has been increasingly capable of being cited with approval!  But when someone like her criticises a tax cut, there is almost certainly something to it.)

Update 2:  I can't get to it behind the paywall, but it appears from a tweet that Dennis Shanahan at the Oz has suggested that someone is thinking that Christopher Pyne could be a "compromise" candidate for the Prime Ministership!!   Please, let it be true.   Hahahahaa