Well he nervously shakes while we rattle his stage

I hope you all enjoyed the election debate as much as I did. Actually, I hope you enjoyed it more, since after the first hour I decided I really needed to buy some puffed corn for the boys breakfast and, thanks to Coles' talent for hiding said item, I missed the end entirely.

I have it on video but whether I will ever get around to watching it is anyone's guess.

From what I saw, I thought young Kev was not particularly inspiring but he did rather better than John "I've never won one of these things so why would I start now" Howard, who just seemed cross about being there, and looked less and less comfortable as things progressed. And his attempts to avoid answering questions on Iraq were particularly entertaining.

It was good to see Kev havinga good night after what was, according to the media, a terrible first week for Labor. A bad opinion poll (it takes a special kind of journalism to report a 54-46 lead as 'bad' for anyone other than the guy who is on 46) an apparently politically brilliant tax package that caught Labor 'flat footed' because they failed, not having teh resources of government, to release their own package the same day, and a general sense that now the campaign had started, the momentum was swinging back to our politically masterful government and it was going to be 2004 all over again.

I realise I'm not the first to comment on the apparent dissonance between the campaign as reported and this week's Newspoll, taken before the Great Debate, showing that following this disasterous week for Labor, their lead had increased and it was now 58-42.

Despite the fact that every political commentator has mentioned this already, I'm going to join in because it just makes me incredibly happy.

I've said it before, I'll say it again:

And may the best moves win, rodent boy.