The unprecedented pre-election campaign debate, hosted this afternoon at Canberra's National Press Club was notable for providing little extra detail on health policies proposed by the government or opposition.

But there were plenty of sparks as Mr Rudd and Mr Abbott harangued each other over their records and locked horns on the health and hospitals reform plan proposed by the Rudd Labor Government.

Channel Nine's "worm" and the Seven Network's "polliegraph" indicated Mr Rudd was the winner throughout the debate, with audience members appreciating his positive talk about a health reform plan.

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The worm is a moron. The Channel Nine host Tracy Grimshaw ought to apply an IQ test to her audience of "undecided" voters before she gives them a licence to press buttons. Since they were paid $50 each, you'd have thought the "wormologists" would pay attention during the leaders' health debate at the National Press Club. Instead, their combined wisdom produced the sort of reflex reactions you might see from a slobbering toddler.

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Yes, Miranda's champion of negative spruik, Tony Abbott, did not get a look-in with the worm.

TV is a medium where emotions rule most.

Would you like to have seen fully exposed boring technical and financial plans about which hospital was going to get what under what circumstances, in what year or quarter?... How many CAT scan would be allowed per lunar calendar,... how many screaming brats with a small paper cut allowed access to a full cosmetic surgeon specialist team?... How many grannies, who should have died quietly in their own dignified bed, allowed to live an extra two weeks on a very-expensive-to-run life support machine while in a coma? Charts, pie charts and more expensive bizos with tubes to satisfy ever increasing profitable technological and pharmaceutical industries...?

And yes, the little pink budgie smuggler Abbott took one billion dollars out of health states' budgets when he was minister, possibly to make sure chaos would develop in the Labor States so Labor would get kicked out. And yes the Abbott did make some rock solid promises about Medicare in 2004 — promises that were scuttled not long after he was elected...

So please Ms Devine, apologise to the people who operated the worm machine in favour of Rudd's emotional mumsy appeal rather than for the twisted lying aggressive negative little runt. They deserve better than your scorn and they clearly showed their discontent: Abbott got wormed, tarred and feathered... and not only on channel 9. See toon at top.