Judge them by what happens, not what might have. When it comes to Julia Gillard, when you are hot, you’re hot, and when you’re not, you’re not. And for us in the media it appears the choice is that she is not. Today the PM is being criticised not for something she has done but for something she perhaps briefly thought of doing. It is a weird political world.

There would have been some rough justice. Bob Carr was all set to enter federal Parliament when the true extent of NSW Labor’s defeat in 1988, and the unpopularity of one Laurie Brereton, interfered. The party controllers had promised him the seat of Lionel Bowen when that former deputy prime minister retired as a member of the House of Representatives with Brereton anointed to become the next state party leader. Plans were changed and the roles were swapped after the judgment was made that Carr might be able to return state Labor to government while under Brereton that would not be possible.

It’s the statins fault. Don’t blame me if my memory has failed me in recalling that snippet of history for now I have an excuse. US regulators have announced that prescription cholesterol-lowering drugs can cause dementia and memory impairment. And here was I until this morning thinking that it was just growing old!

We have a clear favourite again. The Mitt Romney victory in Michigan might have been narrow but it was enough to see him installed again as the clear favourite to become the Republican presidential candidate.

The Crikey Republican Indicator now has Romney at 82%, Rick Santorum 6%, Newt Gingrich 4%, Ron Paul 3%, Jeb Bush 3% and all others 2%.

Bob should be happy. The Katter team of candidates for the Queensland election should be happy with the negative approach that Labor is taking to campaigning. I doubt that much of the mud being thrown will actually stick to Campbell Newman but combined with the federal Labor leadership shenanigans there is a chance that it will sour voters with Main St.