Yesterday’s Question Time was the most exciting few hours that Parliament has seen all year.

Tony Abbott and Kevin Rudd indulged in an impromptu debate on health policy, with plenty of yelling and posing. Now another official health debate is set for next Tuesday for the two of them at the Press Gallery. Deputy PM Julia Gillard was in fine form over, dodging criticism of Building the Education Revolution projects.

So how did the commentariat see Question Time?

As Bernard Keane wrote on The Stump:

Abbott pulled off a decent off-the-cuff speech, heavy on repetition and attacks on Rudd, although he blundered badly when he bizarrely insisted that a cancer centre at Royal Darwin Hospital named after a famed NT doctor, and a PET scanner at Royal North Shore hospital, should be named after him. Nevertheless, it lifted the Coalition’s backbench spirits and Anthony Albanese’s offer of an extra five minutes to speak looked awkward.

Nevertheless, the Government had got the focus back on health, right where it wanted it, and while Rudd’s response to Abbott was hardly sparkling – if any speech by Rudd ever sparkles in any way – it enabled the Prime Minister to quickly reprise his key themes about Abbott’s time as Health Minister, dwelling heavily on funding.

The Age

Michelle Grattan: Gillard waits in the wings

The government will be desperately trying to prick the Abbott balloon by the time Parliament comes back.

Misha Schubert: Rudd, Abbott clash on health as TV debate is set

But it found Mr Abbott a willing combatant, after it forced him into a spontaneous dress rehearsal for the televised debate in the middle of question time.

Sydney Morning Herald

Phillip Coorey: Abbott dare gets Rudd talking

Debates are always difficult for incumbents because they afford their opponent equal status and billing and give them an opportunity to take free hits at the government.

The Courier Mail

Dennis Atkins: Risky strategy as Kevin Rudd allows Tony Abbott to talk on health and hospitals

It looked like the Government’s gamble had paid off but the highwire tactics give another pointer to a great election year.

The Australian

Dennis Shanahan: Spooked government gets down and dirty

There have been some grubby tactics in parliament and nasty personal attacks as Labor seems to become obsessed with the standing of leaders and trying to damage Abbott.

Samantha Maiden: Then Gillard entered the killing zone

Tony Abbott had a stunned-monkey look on his face when Labor sprang a parliamentary ambush on him yesterday… Just as the hostilities concluded and the normal transmission of question time resumed, Julia Gillard entered the killing zone.

Elsewhere:

Larvatus Prodeo, Mark Bahnisch, The Great Health Debate

…it looked like Abbott was mostly in bluster mode, and Rudd quite assured.

The Piping Shrike, Health may not be the winner

But anyway, in reality Abbott is not the one the federal government should be attacking, but rather its own state governments, for the reasons that may see two of them fall this weekend.