It is probably a sign of how dire the Gillard government's situation is at the moment when things which are supposed to go her way backfire so badly and become political disasters.
First it was the riot at the Aboriginal tent embassy on Australia Day where filthy radicals stormed a restaurant where heroes were being awarded and put the safety of both Gillard and opposition leader Tony Abbott at serious risk. A terrified Gillard was rushed through the feral mob into a waiting car. That should have evoked sympathy for Gillard and further turned people against the mongrel mob of Aborigines and their supporters. Instead we found out that one of her own staff as well as Unions ACT head Kim Sattler fabricated a story that Abbott wanted to tear down the embassy and incited the riot by telling the scum he was next door in the restaurant. So Gillard's mates stabbed her in the back and further harmed her standing after a Christmas/New Year period where her popularity temporarily rose.
If that wasn't enough, we now see her performance on the ABC's Four Corners which can only be described as bizarre. As the Americans might say "What the sam hill was she thinking?" Once again her attempts to squirm out of the problem and look for scapegoats has been even more embarrassing.
Gillard tried to dump on the ABC saying she was ambushed. She claims she was told the show would be about the achievements of her government and that the interview would be a puff piece where she could wax lyrical without being challenged. As if.
Gillard has been in politics and public life long enough to know that journalism - especially TV journalism - just doesn't work that way. Sure you might have thousands of PR hacks with or without journalism degrees pumping out your press releases putting a positive spin on yourself and your policies, but the media have to provide the public with a bit more substance and critical analysis simply because the average person can see right through one-sided propaganda and spin.
Did she really expect 45 minutes of pro-government pap in a prime time TV slot? Not even the ABC was prepared to do that. She can't claim that she was ambushed by the interviewer because he and the producer of the show have given media interviews stating quite clearly that Gillard was told that the interview would also canvass the government's problems and the leadership question. So she went ahead with the interview anyway and now that it has all gone pear-shaped she is now shooting the messenger.
The Gillard government is now on death row waiting for the executioner. The situation is terminal. Every time her friends and supporters pipe up in the media trying to boost her stocks it harms her politically. The latest example was Greens leader Bob Brown claiming that criticism of Gillard was "sexist". That went down like a lead balloon. The latest Newspoll shows that Labor support fell sharply after the speech and - more telling for Gillard - Tony Abbott has now overtaken her as preferred prime minister, the first time this has happened for three months. It is even more significant when you consider that the most recent Galaxy poll - taken before Brown's speech - showed Labor fast gaining on the coalition and Gillard comfortably in front as preferred prime minister. Indeed, the usual suspects were again writing off Abbott and putting up the failed straw man Malcolm Turnbull as a replacement for Abbott as Liberal leader.
Sadly it would appear that the malaise in Canberra will continue for the foreseeable future. The California system of recall elections where a petition of several thousand people can force a new election seems very attractive indeed. For the next eighteen months we are stuck with a government which no longer has the support of the vast majority of Australians.
