Remember Paul Keating’s posters from 1996? “Leadership,” they screamed.

Remember Labor’s ads? “Tim Fischer, a nice enough bloke, but…” chortled Bill Hunter as he mocked the Coalition frontbench.

They didn’t save that government.

In 2007, leadership seems to be John Howard’s biggest problem and the opposition team largely remains unscathed.

“Rudd is now preferred PM, this being the most important influence on vote for many,” leaked Crosby Textor polling reproduced in full for the very first time in Crikey today warned the Prime Minister back in June. (View Part 1 and Part 2 as a PDF)

Their advice was to “refocus on comparing team strengths”. That simply hasn’t happened.

Rudd powers on. John Howard has failed to ask voters: Who do you think is more capable of running the nation; who do you think is more capable of handling the economy; us or Julia Gillard, Peter Garrett, Nicola Roxon and Kim Carr?

His government looks more and more like a one man band – and sounds out of tune to voters.