You have to give Conservatives credit

They do not air their doubts in public. You have to know that some of the more thoughtful Conservatives are probably wondering about a party and leadership that just cannot grow their support. They have to be wondering why they cannot open up a consistant double digit lead on an opponent that has had such big troubles for the last four years. Yet we hear nary a peep of worry.

Contrast that to the Liberals who upon release of another poll suggesting that Mr. Dion is not currently connecting well with Canadians several bloggers begin gnashing their teeth and making more noise about Mr. Dion having to go. Right on cue I will wager that we will hear "unnamed senior Liberals" making similar noises in the coming days thus undoing all of the progress that Mr. Dion has made in the past weeks.

And progress has been made.

After a year from hell Mr. Dion was finally beginning to get some good press. Some in the media were actually using the term leadership and Mr. Dion positively in the same sentence. Some were describing him as bold and courageous for proposing putting a price on carbon while suggesting the a reduction of income taxes. Some in the media were playing up the coming announcement hard and the communications strategy was actually working. It was whetting the interests of pundits and setting the stage for what should be a good news announcement. It was generating a debate on the merits of a Liberal policy instead of the interminable talk about party leadership and the "behind the scenes leadership race" the likes of Duffy and others were peddling.

Then, as if by design, another poll is published indicating that Mr. Dion is not well regarded by Canadians. If many of the Liberals who have complained tonight had any political sense they would have realized that the poll is just more of the same and strugged it off. They would have realized that rebuilding his image after last year will take longer than 5 months. They will have realized that having yet another round of calling for Mr. Dion's removal is counterproductive in the extreme.

Mr. Dion cannot be removed and he is not inclined to step down. So, calling for him to leave the post accomplishes nothing except to weaken him more and to strengthen Mr. Harper. In all likelihood any progress that Mr. Dion has made has been set back.

Although they take it to extremes there is something to the Conservative strategy of ignoring what the media and its opponents say about them. They refuse to buy into it. Liberals could learn from that. They could learn that a certain amount of aloofness with regard to the media narrative would go along way in rebuilding their image and that of Mr. Dion. Instead, they buy it hook, line and sinker and thus give it credibility.

Debating party policy is great but expressing doubts about Mr. Dion has to stop. It is useless, self-destructive and irrelevent.