The turning worm

While everyone seems to agree that political debate of the sort we saw between Mr Abbott and Mr Rudd is a good idea, I find it disconcerting (perhaps even disgraceful) that Mr Abbott thinks it is appropriate to make cheap personal jokes about the Prime Minister. I suggest it tells us more about the real quality of the rebuttal when all that is left to do is to insult your opponent.
The first rule any debating teacher tells their team is "Attack the argument, not the person". The use of cheap personal slurs says more about the poverty of the attacker's argument than the person they are attacking.
I suspect the 'worm' showed us that while the public might titter initially at cheap jibes it does not actually find this to be the sign of a mature leader.