From The Australian:
KEVIN Rudd has all but ruled out an August 31 election date and is now unlikely to call a poll until at least September 21 – three years and one month after Labor went to the voters in 2010.
The Prime Minister has told colleagues not to expect an election to be called this weekend and publicly signalled yesterday that, under the Constitution, he could go to “October-November” before holding an election.
The comments suggest an intention to go beyond simply “announcing” policies and trying to implement them fully, to convince voters that Mr Rudd can deliver on his promises.
There is also a plan to undermine Tony Abbott, who has successfully campaigned against Julia Gillard for the past three years.
This is the correct decision if he wants to win. Rudd seems to be playing a game of political whack-a-mole at the moment as he neutralises all of the Coalition hot-button issues. Rushing to an election now would be far too cynical.
Rudd should push it back to November and get on with governing for a while. If he has any sense, once past this period of platform correction, he should return to a long, deliberate and detailed discussion of the post-China boom economy.
