As battle looms, the headquarters staff of both the major parties are coming under close scrutiny.

Michelle Grattan picks up on Crikey’s line. “Howard has lost his old confidence,” she writes in The Age today. “MPs continue to insist he and they are missing his former adviser Arthur Sinodinos.”

The mood is much better in the Labor camp. Many party insiders were surprised – and alarmed – when Simon Banks was appointed as Kevin Rudd’s chief of staff. It was generally thought he was too nice for the role.

Rudd has a healthy ego, doesn’t lack confidence in his own abilities – and tends to want to do things his way. Most of the time that’s the right thing to do, too – but as the Sunrise false dawn episode demonstrated, he needs to have a hardcase able to stand up to him and tell him where he was wrong.

Banks was not that person, even though it’s generally believed  he could be a campaign asset to the ALP in some other role.

There is strong interest in the gallery and the media generally if and how Rudd’s media operations may change. Relations, to put it mildly, have been difficult at times. There’s a view that the Labor leader’s minders have been a little more helpful and a little less arrogant of late. Their handling of the Therese Rein story has impressed many media, too.

Canberra watchers are impressed that Rudd has been able to lure David Epstein back to service. Some of his predecessors tried. That Rudd has succeeded, insiders say, is a tribute to his skills – and his potential.