“What we really want to see in our leaders is sincerity and conviction. We want to be able to trust them. What we see in Julia is a stiff and wooden performance that gives us no idea of what she’s really feeling, if anything at all.”

So wrote playwright David Williamson in Crikey last week.

Obviously, after yesterday, that no longer stands. Regardless of the tears, that’d have to be one of the best speeches of Prime Minister Gillard’s political life.

Nor could you doubt the sincerity and conviction of Tony Abbott’s white hot anger as he visibly trembled with rage for an agonisingly long time over the “shit happens” footage put to him by Seven News’ Mark Riley.

Now that we’ve established that our political leaders are human let’s move right along to the details of what they’re currently peddling: little things like a flood levy (or not, in Abbott’s case), a CPRS in one form or another and a COAG deal on health.

As for all those delighting in their own disapproval over Abbott’s comment, a comment seriously in need of some context, here’s another Australian colloquialism: get your hand off it.