There had been talks of Gillard taking over as a result of Rudd's general inability to respectably manage his own party for months before Gillard took control. This wasn't an overnight ordeal.
There is a profound difference between taking the reins out of the hands of a man who's own party has lost confidence in him, and slyly manipulating public perception through leaks and other off-the-record conversations to try and pressure your party to vote you back in out of manufactured fear, which of course includes their own job security. The latter should not be rewarded.
It might be "great politics", whatever that means, but it sickens me that the Australian public seems so damn incapable of seeing through the paper-thin "oh woe is me" Rudd persona. But people seem to always prefer the shiny and sexy over to-the-point and practical.
Gillard isn't faultless, but she is certainly the lesser of two evils here.
