This patch-up job threatens Labor's chances THIS is the ugly reality of governing today. Kevin Rudd's election campaign now confronts slower growth, higher unemployment, weaker terms of trade, fractured business confidence and more tax increases to repair the latest in a long line of Labor's misjudgments on the economy. It is a bad way to start an election. The economy is in worse shape than Labor expected just 10 weeks ago in its May budget. The downside risks are greater. Labor has misread the economic trajectory yet again. Its economic credibility has taken a further hit.