Turnbull wins. The question is, will Turnbull be the breakthrough leader his supporters think, or just Mark Latham in a Fioravanti suit but sans the temporary suburban mum bounce? Either way, this is going to be one hell of a Nantucket Sleigh Ride for the hard right of the Coalition. That margin is small – Peacock/Howard all over again? — Possum’s Pollytics

Malcolm Turnbull finally ends the Howard years? Malcolm Turnbull needs to give up on placating all those who still long for the departed Howard’s firm hand. The Liberal Party needs to eschew stunts and populism and restore its tattered economic credibility (which was actually junked by Howard and Costello themselves – that was obvious enough in last year’s election but now it’s plain as day). It also needs to move with the times and take a responsible position on an ETS and trim its sails to fit the socially liberal winds that have been blowing – unsniffed as they were by the Tony Abbotts and Nick Minchins of the world. — Larvatus Prodeo

Liberal Leadership contest – what difference does it make? One could speculate about what other sorts of policy changes might occur from a resolution of the leadership uncertainty, but that would only be speculation. It is tempting to assume there might be more fiscal discipline and less short-term populism under a Turnbull leadership, but it is impossible to do more than make assumptions at this stage. The reality of being a first term Opposition with unresolved internal differences still playing themselves out creates pressures which make policy decisions hard to predict. — Andrew Bartlett

Poor Brendan Nelson. From the second he took over from John Howard after the resounding election defeat last year, everyone was thinking “Dude is a Band-Aid that’s gonna get ripped off and thrown away once the wound isn’t quite so icky to look at anymore” and he was like “No, for real! I am leader! And quite popular! Look and marvel as my colleagues appreciate me and support me!” and Malcolm Turnbull was all “Hey bitch, call me when you’re done cleaning my office and I’ll move my stuff in” and… well, I’ve run out of idiotic things to say on this topic, and wahey! Did you see that the Libs decided to go with Turnbull after their Top Secret Ballot this morning? — Defamer