Crikey

Australians really didn’t react strongly to Kevin Rudd’s embarrassing slip when he failed to name the tax breaks and floundered answering the question about tax breaks, according to Roy Morgan’s Reactor — the online real time reaction device based on an Australia-wide sample of 1,353 electors.

There’ll be other thrills ‘n’ spills during the campaign, and Crikey subscribers will have a chance to vote on them. Crikey will be running regular Reactors for readers to rate.

But back to Kruddy’s crisis from last week. Labor supporters – the red line – who typically react positively the moment Kevin Rudd appears, were neutral as the Labor leader stumbled through the tax break. Coalition supporters – the Blue line – who typically react negatively to Kevin Rudd, slowly slipped below neutral, but not nearly as strongly negative as they typically are to any ALP spokesman.

However, both party supporters reverted to type in their reaction to Peter Costello’s speech in Parliament about Kevin Rudd’s failure to name tax breaks. ALP supporters reacted negatively to Costello, Coalition supporters reacted positively.

It will be fascinating to see what happens in the campaign proper.