Number 5 with a bullet! From nowhere, Troy Buswell writhes orgiastically into the top five in the Media Monitors Crikey Political Index. Thank goodness he boycotted the 2020 summit – poor bloke would have OD’d on 500+ chairs.

Morris Iemma’s Labor conference electrocution is enough to beat Wayne Swan, preparing for his close-up, into third spot, and both have pushed Brendan “every mother loves her baby” Nelson down to 4th.

Garrett and Wong (can someone convince them to make a buddy cop movie, please?) have also taken a tumble, but Crikey’s favourite razor-wielder Lindsay Tanner has rocketed a buttock-bruising six places into the top 20.

And here’s a challenge for Crikey readers — why does Stephen Smith have so many internet mentions when his stats would otherwise confine him to the obscurity of the high teens? Is there a www.suaveforeignminister.com site we don’t know about? 

TW

Move

Position

Politician

Press

Radio

TV

Internet

Total

1

0

PM

Kevin Rudd

982

5,025

2,703

13,786

22,496

2

1

Premier

Morris Iemma

498

6,649

2,894

3,585

13,626

3

1

Cabinet

Wayne Swan

418

3,065

1,807

2,730

8,020

4

-2

Opp Leader

Brendan Nelson

200

1,759

650

4,842

7,451

5

*

WA Opp Lea

Troy Buswell

272

3,136

1,350

735

5,493

6

5

Shadow

Malcolm Turnbull

152

1,429

754

1,848

4,183

7

0

Premier

John Brumby

217

1,065

757

1,117

3,156

8

0

Cabinet

Stephen Smith

74

855

351

1,789

3,069

9

-3

Premier

Anna Bligh

230

1,019

270

1,521

3,040

10

-5

Cabinet

Julia Gillard

106

207

54

2,094

2,461

11

3

Cabinet

Joel Fitzgibbon

65

894

595

640

2,194

12

-2

Cabinet

Nicola Roxon

129

565

254

1,190

2,138

13

7

Premier

Alan Carpenter

110

563

582

639

1,894

14

-2

Backbench

Peter Costello

124

185

170

887

1,366

15

-6

Cabinet

Penny Wong

80

325

11

831

1,247

16

-3

Cabinet

Peter Garrett

30

94

74

809

1,007

17

-1

Cabinet

Chris Evans

57

298

11

543

909

18

6

Cabinet

Lindsay Tanner

65

292

43

473

873

19

3

Cabinet

Jenny Macklin

38

322

59

384

803

20

3

Premier

Mike Rann

95

297

88

274

754

 

Talkback Top Five

Rank

Politician

Talkback

1

Morris Iemma

576

2

Troy Buswell

420

3

Kevin Rudd

201

4

Wayne Swan

59

5

Brendan Nelson

47

Comparison

The Logies

175

818

1512

479

2,984

There’s more on the Media Monitors website .