The problem is the product not the salesmanship and the Senate will make the budget product far less damaging

If Tony Abbott can resist the temptation to say much at all while overseas during the next fortnight then my guess is that he will come home to far less doom and gloom about his government than the pollsters are showing this week. When the message you have to sell is unpopular it is better not to try and do so and this Coalition budget is full of nasty little elements. But time heals – especially when most of the things the public is objecting to are never going to happen. When the Senate has done its destructive best the voters will be left wondering what they were ever getting so upset about.

Treasurer Joe Hockey seems to have realised that silence is the best policy. He has gone conspicuously silent and the Prime Minister would be wise to follow his example.

That things are  not really as serious as much of the media comment would have us believe is shown by the way the Owl’s market based election indicator still has the Coalition comfortably favourite to be returned at the next election.

Sure there has been a movement towards Labor but it is still pointing in a very different direction to the opinion polls that have Labor seven or eight percentage points in front.