essential oil

Obviously someone like me is going to be very happy about someone like Peter Garrett joining Labor, even though Labor would already have my vote. I think Mike Steketee summed it up best for me in the Weekend Australian:

Garrett, who joined the Labor Party this week, will bring passion, idealism and a personality that commands attention. More than that, he has the potential to appeal to voters as an outsider to politics - a very powerful image in an era of extreme political cynicism and large-scale disengagement. This, at least, is Labor's fond hope..."He gets to a lot of people who aren't terribly interested in politics," says one [Labor] strategist. "I don't know whether he's worth any votes. It's more about adding colour and movement to the party."

As you'd expect, backpages and surfdom have good threads going on the subject.