The Labor leadership of Bill Shorten has generally been seen as something interstitial and a little bit painful. From the moment he beat Anthony Albanese to the punch in the leadership ballot in 2013, he was perceived as a seat-warmer for an inevitably better candidate — perhaps even Albo himself.
When the Coalition rapidly slipped behind in the polls, few were of the illusion that it was Shorten or Labor's sterling policy work facilitating the success as opposed to Tony Abbott's myriad (and painstakingly documented) policy and communication failures.
But the attention this week has been on something else: Labor has built a small poll lead over the Coalition as led by the eminently more marketable Malcolm Turnbull, and in this case the commentariat are willing to give Shorten and Labor the credit. They're the ones controlling the policy conversation and setting the agenda, and it feels like the government are just responding in turn.
Who is this Bill Shorten? This is someone who even a few months ago would be largely inconceivable in the top job, but now seems at the very least plausible.
Shorten has always been the backroom numbers man, the kingmaker who knifed two prime ministers and was pushed into the leadership against the will of the rank-and-file by those faceless men we hear so much about.
Turnbull seems like he was engineered in a lab to be an Australian prime minister by a mad scientist with inscrutable motives, with every single one of his personal and political moves since then oriented toward taking the top job.
Turnbull squandered the goodwill he had among the Australian mainstream (and even sections of the liberal left) by being paralysed by indecision.
Since he booted Abbott in September, Turnbull hasn't been able to appease anybody in particular. The hard right know that he's a snake in the grass, and progressives who weren't already deeply jaded by his previous political manoeuvring know that he has kowtowed to conservatives to hold on to power.
"Labor's campaign is about defence of social democratic foundations; of health, education and the social safety net; of whatever meagre working class victories remain."
Which brings us to Shorten. It's clear that aside from the overwhelmingly dissected physical changes — he's fit, he's jogging, he's loving life — there's been a notable change in the political image Shorten is maintaining. Whereas Turnbull got the job he wanted, but is paralysed into inaction by the two forces that