The ABC of Tony Abbott damage control

“I think the reason Tony Abbott keeps refusing to front up to Q & A is that he’s become a captive of his party strategists. They know only too well that the Opposition Leader has got a credibility problem with audiences who are not necessarily of his ilk. They fear an ABC1 audience of mainly younger, intelligent, cosmopolitan sceptics who won’t warm to his macho body language. They could misinterpret his frequent awkward hesitations, repetitious slogans, silences and unwillingness to engage with direct questioning as the demeanor of a politician who doesn’t need their vote.
Most of all, I think the strategists fear the effect of such exposure on the polls.”

~ A reader’s letter from today’s Weekend Australian newspaper. I think the writer has nailed it; Tony Abbott is so ill-equipped to handle anything spontaneous or personally interactive that his head would explode.