Playing the man proves a poll turn-off

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TONY Abbott's dislike of Kevin Rudd has got the better of him.

After a strong start as Opposition Leader, lifting his net satisfaction rating to a point where, two weeks ago, he moved ahead of the Prime Minister for the first time, Abbott has come crashing down to earth. Rudd again leads Abbott on the net satisfaction rating: +12 to just +1.

It was a quick turnaround. The catalyst for Abbott's fall from grace was surely his performance in the nationally televised health debate, where he focused on negative rhetoric while the Prime Minister deliberately stayed positive.

Abbott's early success was built on his ability to open the public's eyes to the Rudd Liberal MPs see: a chameleon who over-promises and under-delivers.

But in the health debate he went too far, poking fun at Rudd's less than enthralling personality, accusing him of lying, manipulating and changing his ground.

The Opposition Leader removed the filter between what he really thinks of Rudd and the subtle messages he needs to deliver to voters.

Liberals are now at serious risk of making the same mistake with Rudd that Labor for so many years made with John Howard, hating him to the point where it affects their judgment about how to deal with him politically.

Other than perhaps giving Abbott the chance to learn from the mistakes he made in the debate for their next showdown, the turnaround in Newspoll has vindicated Rudd's decision to allow for an early debate, putting the Opposition Leader on an equal platform.

Ever since Rudd became Labor leader, Liberals have underestimated his skills as a politician. Yesterday's Newspoll showed that, although Abbott might have made voters stop and consider whether Rudd was all that he promised to be, they certainly had not taken Abbott's criticisms of their Prime Minister as gospel.

The danger for Abbott now is that he has little room to move. Newspoll could start to feel like a fortnightly kick in the teeth. If his net satisfaction rating falls much further, he might start to be seen as a drag on the Coalition vote.

That is a dangerous position for any opposition leader to be in. Just ask Brendan Nelson or Malcolm Turnbull.