Two Things

First, will someone in the Liberal Party please help Iggy with the coalition question? For Christ's sake, Paul Wells has been warning you for two years that this was coming. Iggy looked evasive and when you are trying to frame the election as "Who do you trust", that's a bad thing.

Second, Iggy, do not tell NDP and Green Voters that they will kill kittens if they don't vote Liberal. It looks desperate (especially given that the writ hasn't even been dropped), is insulting and it won't work over a month-long campaign.

If this is what we can expect from Team Liberal, an Ontario 1990 may become a possibility.

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A Certain Lack Of Backbone

Here is the Ottawa consensus in two paragraphs:

The survey conducted for CBC.com also found that more Canadians disapprove of Mr. Ignatieff's job performance today than before last week's election tensions. Thirty seven per cent of Canadians surveyed disapproved of Mr. Ignatieff's performance between June 17-23, compared to 34 per cent who felt that way from June 10-16.

EKOS President Frank Graves said it may be the ads are “finally starting to have a corrosive effect on his reputation. At the same time, Ignatieff was the public face of the Liberal brinksmanship last week, and that may have affected his personal reputation as well as the party's.”

in other words, Iggy's popularity is taking a beating because he dared to threaten an election that "no one wants". May I suggest an alternative explanation? Iggy's reputation is taking a beating because he threatened an election and then backed down -- again. In statistical terms, we call it the Dion Variable (leadership=decisiveness + will).

Update: Kady asks the right question:

Honestly, y’all, I just don’t know what to make of these numbers —I mean, yes, it does appear to back up the contention that Canadians were, to put it mildly, some ticked by Ignatieff’s brief but lively foray into electoral brinksmanship – but if that’s the case, why the extreme slumpage at the end of the week, when the danger had passed, and the Liberals — having backed down two days prior — were voting with the government to pass the last bits of the budget bill while counting down the minutes til the House would adjourn for the summer?

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Parliament Is Becoming An Episode Of Oz

Shorter Harper to Iggy: "Ok bitch, bend over or else."

Liberals are having some buyer's remorse at the moment, I am sure. It looks to me like Harper is feeling his oats again and has determined that Iggy is a punk. Too bad Iggy dumped the coalition in favor of the biggest "swinging dick" on the cell block. If it wasn't so sad for the country, I might be amused.

Update: Some Liberals are in denial, but not the ones running the party. The slush fund vote will come long before June and from my vantage point, Iggy's box is much smaller than Harper's.

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