For the first time since his sacking, Kevin Rudd came face to face with Prime Minister Gillard today - the woman who took his job. It must have been a difficult moment - it's been reported that there was no eye contact. When Ms Gillard emerged from the meeting, she said that they would not be campaigning alongside each other in the run up to the election, they would be campaigning separately.
This extraordinary situation is still very hard to understand. It was all so sudden and unexpected. The irony is that there was no real need to sack Rudd - there was a good chance he could have gone to the election and won. In the aftermath of his asassination, the polls are now showing that Gillard is losing ground so she had to swallow her pride and ask for his help to win the election.
And it must be said that Kevin Rudd has been very forgiving. After being treated so badly, you would expect him to be bitter and twisted but if he is, he's not showing it. His behaviour towards Julia has been friendly and coridal and he's promised to do everything he can to help win the election for Labor. Last week when he had an emergency gall bladder operation, he had the perfect excuse to stay home and recouperate for the rest of the election campaign, but he couldn't wait to get back into it.
I suspect that Kevin Rudd is a huge embarrassment to Julia Gillard - he seems to be gaining personal approval while her own popularity is dwindling. I think it might be finally dawning on Ms Gillard that what she did to Kevin Rudd was probably the worst political decision of her political career.
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