The man with an approval rating lower than the official interest rate (yay, everybody loses!) moves up to second as Morris Iemma continues to pardon everyone he ever met from any wrongdoing.

The economy and health were the dominant topics and this is reflected in the list, with Swan and Roxon making up the top five, while the once and future leaders of the Liberal Party received an identical amount of coverage this week, with the Liberals’ eminence grise sneaking in to the Top Twenty with more overt displays of power among the powerless.

Crikey Political Index 28 Feb – 4 Mar 08

Overall

TW

Move

Position

Politician

Press

Radio

TV

Internet

Total

1

0

PM

Kevin Rudd

1,277

10,581

5,877

12,543

30,278

2

1

Opp Leader

Brendan Nelson

302

2,034

1,216

4,491

8,043

3

-1

Premier

Morris Iemma

376

3,100

998

2,210

6,684

4

2

Cabinet

Wayne Swan

253

1,594

969

2,938

5,754

5

16

Cabinet

Nicola Roxon

158

2,963

1,384

794

5,299

6

8

Premier

John Brumby

198

1,662

567

1,021

3,448

7

2

Premier

Anna Bligh

163

926

465

1,646

3,200

8

-4

Cabinet

Julia Gillard

146

550

130

2,049

2,875

9

8

Shadow

Malcolm Turnbull

136

704

363

1,095

2,298

10

0

ex PM

John Howard

239

485

28

1,546

2,298

11

-4

Cabinet

Stephen Smith

70

316

59

1,730

2,175

12

-1

Cabinet

Jenny Macklin

103

524

138

1,206

1,971

13

11

Cabinet

Peter Garrett

129

615

308

905

1,957

14

-1

Cabinet

Joel Fitzgibbon

44

421

138

1,294

1,897

15

-7

Cabinet

Penny Wong

78

578

160

744

1,560

16

-11

Backbench

Alexander Downer

68

228

168

967

1,431

17

14

Cabinet

Lindsay Tanner

70

112

274

846

1,302

18

-2

Shadow

Julie Bishop

44

217

169

823

1,253

19

0

Cabinet

Anthony Albanese

76

330

28

752

1,186

20

14

Shadow

Nick Minchin

34

226

104

741

1,105

A quiet week of talkback shows that in the bush, radio is still king, Tony Burke snaring second spot.

Talkback Top Five

Rank

Politician

Talkback

1

Kevin Rudd

271

2

Tony Burke

65

3

Wayne Swan

60

4

Morris Iemma

48

5

Brendan Nelson

39

Eddy has supposedly commenced formalities to change his surname officially to Felson.

Comparison

Eddy Groves

105

405

465

329

1,304

There’s more on the Media Monitors website.