Bigger crash than Ben Hur?

The faux Roman epic Ben Hur is famous for two key reasons. For both its spectacular length (in some quarters tedium) and its extremely nasty chariot race where most of the contenders get disposed of by a variety of means unknown to the Marquis of Queensbury. In fact, its shares much in common with the Coalition's election campaign.

The entire enterprise appears to be a barely disguised mirage rather reminiscent of the Bank of Queensland commercial where no sooner have a young couple signed their home loan papers than the desk, walls and personnel of the bank evaporate into dust. The message presented to voters, the campaign organisation and the visual presentation of the ads themselves borders on shambolic.

Rather than demonstrate any convincing alternative policy, Howard's launch chose to augment funding for Rudd's policies. This must surely have killed the 'me-too/ vision' debate where he was finally getting a hint of traction. Somewhere between Howard's 'go for growth' slogan and the wish to have an 'opportunity society', Howard's agenda-setting mojo failed to make its customary appearance.

However, today's newfound embrace of bipartisanship poker is only the latest episode where Howard and his campaign staff have failed to take a trick. Basic issues such as getting Tony Abbott to the church (or even the National Press Club) on time appear to be secondary to finding new and unusual ways of alluding to trade unions.

On policy, the obvious weakness is Howard having no clear plan for the future. The whole point is that Howard only had one plan he ever told the voters about in 1998, then surreptitiously introduced everything after he gained re-election based on Labor's perceived incompetence. Howard failed to realise that Rudd steadfastly refused to be wedged and did not adapt. Despite early attempts to turn climate change into an economic issue, Howard had no idea how to. A lame duck to the even lamer Costello.

The slogan 'go for growth' was absurd in the face of a workchoices mutiny and rising interest rates. Even the ads themselves are incompetent. The attack ads linking federal and state Labor go through the union hoop thus diluting their message. For some bizarre reason the Liberals are running the word 'grow' in italics. To paraphrase a Labor ad, people want a 'better' life, Mr Howard. They do not necessary care about nebulous ideas of 'growth'. Not only does this look painful, it reinforces the feeling of resentment those not sharing in the boom are feeling.

The most incompetent use of text in an ad must be the banners inserted into Howard's presentation on the ABC. Liberal party staff must have thought it would be great to emphasise Howard's key themes in the fashion of Sky News. Only someone forgot to tell them that the ad was broadcast in Widescreen format and most people still have ordinary analogue TVs. If anyone in plasma land was even watching Howard on the ABC at 9:30pm on a Saturday night, they would have got the old spiel about unions and states being the sources of all ills. What the plasmaless people for whom Howard has developed a tin ear saw was how 'ions' would ruin the economy and that 'ate' are to blame for interest rates.

Well, perhaps if we did pursue nuclear power and relied on fate to get us home, we would have economic and interest rate problems.