REALPOLITIK is less about policy than it is about messages, and sometimes messages are best delivered visually.
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That's why politicians stage media stunts like visiting small businesses in the outlying industrial suburbs of Canberra, and, yes, Tony Abbott, I'm looking at you.
For months now the Opposition Leader has sought to lead the daily agenda, and get his face on the nightly news, by dragging gaggles of shivering (and sometimes even whimpering) journalists to fishmongers, glass pane purveyors, you name it, in order to emphasise the evil, world-as-we-know-it-slaughtering nature of the government's imminent carbon tax.
On behalf of thin-coated journalists everywhere, I hereby concede defeat - it is clear that in any indefatigability competition, Abbott will always be the victor. Just please, for the love of god, stop taking us to Queanbeyan before we've had our morning coffee.
Yesterday was something of a turning point. Geoff Didier, of Capital Doorworks, in Hume, was happy to host the Opposition Leader and worry publicly about the viability of garage doors in the post-carbon tax era.
The small businessmen Abbott visits are sourced by his staff beforehand. Some are better talent than others and as luck would have it Didier was a real pistol.
Under a carbon tax the price of steel would increase and he would either have to put up door prices or lay off staff, he warned.
''You might be able to explain to me what the government is on about,'' he remarked to Abbott, before broadening his critique to the viability of combating climate change through emissions reductions, particularly when a global consensus on targets has not yet been reached.
''It will be like going on the Harbour Bridge and taking a leak and saying 'Every bit helps,' '' he said.
Quite. In one simple and slightly obscene image, Didier conjured up a dystopian future in which the national effort to reduce carbon emissions is no more effective than one man pissing into the wind.
The wind howled across the the industrial backlot of Capital Doorworks and a nearby dumptruck made a noise which sounded as though the very jaws of hell were opening.
Everyone shivered, partly from the para-zero temperature and partly from the nightmarish vision Didier had painted.
In the future, oceans in general and Sydney Harbour in particular will be warm, but not for reasons of climate change. And metal doors will be horribly endangered.
