I’m not the only that sees the Albo problem. Nikki Saava has identified it:
With the Voice referendum suffering from confused messaging, no obvious leadership, no co-ordination, festering competitive tensions between and within Indigenous camps and a ruthlessly misleading No campaign, Anthony Albanese confronts a wicked dilemma.
If he throws himself body and soul into the campaign to try to rescue it while cost-of-living pressures remain paramount in the minds of voters, the danger is he will lose more votes than he gains. If he holds back and things continue as they have, the referendum will go down and he will be seriously damaged. The recriminations will be bitter and enduring.
While they might be sympathetic to the plight of Indigenous people, voters still uncertain about the Voice will resent a prime minister seemingly distracted from addressing their pain or diverted from managing the economy to fight for a constitutional change so contested by fair means and foul.
It is one of the many fears of those intimately involved in the campaign, who still believe it is salvageable, even though the vibe in the latter part of the year when the referendum is expected is bound to be hostile whether Albanese is prominent or not if – also as expected – prices remain high, unemployment rises and recession beckons.
Defeat in such an environment could trigger a spiral that even the wily Albanese will find difficult to reverse.
A wily politician knows never to create such a dilemma by wandering too far from his base.
Instead, Albo is a man dislocated from all he claims to be. A phony. A fake. He is a social climber who would rather spend his time on policy wars designed to eliminate a working-class culture he despises than he would on lifting their living standards.
There is nothing the Australian people hate more than a fraud. It killed Kevin Rudd (on climate), Julia Gillard (on illegitimacy), Malcolm Turnbull (on being in the wrong party) and Scott Morrison (on lying).
If the polity sniffs out the real Albo, and they are, he is in all sorts of trouble.
