I woke up to the news of a 50-50 Newspoll and a shit-scared Julia Gillard vowing to stop playing it safe; she will throw out the ‘Rule Book’ and get down with the people.

Julia Gillard. Advisers now just out of frame.

Julia Gillard. Advisers now just out of frame.

Gillard’s advisers, after much focus group testing, found that the electorate thought she was too “safe”. The electorate thought that Julia was too stage managed during the campaign and they felt they didn’t really know the “real Julia”.

Feeling the threat of a Newspoll that showed Australia dangerously close to “Prime Minister, Tony Abbott”, Julia Gillard’s minders aranged an appearance on the Nine Network’s Today Show. She performed well and stayed on message. Gillard delivered her message well, telling the voters that she would get dirty and engage with the issues on her terms. “You’re avoiding gaffes and all the rest of it….we’ve been running that traditional style of campaign. I’m going to throw that rule book out and really get out there”, Gillard said.

And the media gobbled it up.

“Let Gillard be Gillard”, said the political geeks on Twitter, with their allusions to fictional West Wing President Jed Bartlett and has Chief of Staff’s “Let Bartlett be Bartlett” note.

The media stayed perfectly on message. The Australian, The Age, The Herald Sun, The ABC all lead with similar stories. Gillard would be throwing out the script, running a real campaign the old fashioned way, taking risks, making mistakes.

But in this age of stage-managed campaigns, even taking a risk seems so… dull. Doesn’t it?