Opposition Leader Tony Abbott is runnning his own race Tony Abbott knows there is no such thing as an unloseable election. IT WAS quite a unity ticket. Mark Latham and Andrew Bolt getting stuck into Tony Abbott on the same day and for the same reasons. There was Bolt on Thursday, disappointed by Abbott's failure to embrace a radically conservative agenda and accusing the Liberal leader of being "Labor-lite." "Exactly where are any of the big differences?" he asked. Over in The Financial Review, Latham was sneering at Abbott for not setting out "an alternative vision for smaller government" and rubber-stamping most of Labor's Budget measures instead. "Australia's Right-wing ideologues have wasted their time," gloated the former Labor leader. Abbott had waved the white flag. The Bolt-Latham view was in stark contrast to Julia Gillard's attempts to portray the man poised to become prime minister on September 14 as a dangerous extremist. The twin columns are striking evidence of Abbott's success in repositioning himself. As a Liberal strategist puts it: "Tony has become more mainstream and that's exactly the reassurance Australians are looking for." Bolt's comments are particularly interesting because of his links to Melbourne-based Right-wing think-tank the Institute of Public Affairs. Joe Hockey, in a recent speech, acknowledged the important role the IPA plays in Liberal Party affairs as "a policy spine stiffener." But elections are won in the middle, not out on the edge - Right or Left. Abbott knows it. He also knows that, before winning the 1996 election, John Howard had to adopt a more moderate persona. Howard very publicly repented his questioning of Asian immigration and abandoned his promise to take a scalpel to Medicare. Bolt faults Abbott for, among other things, promising no big changes to industrial relations policy, supporting a referendum to recognise Aborigines in the Constitution and refusing to even consider privatising the ABC. As a senior Liberal said yesterday: "Andrew Bolt is a terrific polemicist but not a great political adviser." Abbott in recent weeks has actually shown a fair degree of spine. His decision to embrace the Budget's $43 billion in tax rises and spending cuts is an example. So is his refusal to exempt the GST from the Coalition's promised review of the tax system, despite a fierce scare campaign by Labor. But, while he believes voters accept the need for a more thrifty approach to government, he obviously also takes the view that they want stability rather than radical change. So he is taking care not to frighten the horses. His insistence that WorkChoices is "dead, buried and cremated" is a case in point. One Coalition frontbencher said of Bolt's call for tough industrial relations policy: "That's the best way to lose the election." Another quoted Gough Whitlam's famous line: "Only the impotent are pure." Canvassing privatisation of the ABC would be, in the words of a close Abbott colleague, "stupid, patently absurd." Apart from anything else, who would buy something that makes no money? A privatised ABC would have to take advertising and commercial broadcasters are doing it tough. As for constitutional recognition of the first Australians, Bolt will have to get used to the idea that Abbott feels passionately about it. The Liberal leader can expect more pressure from some on his own side of politics to put policy purity ahead of electoral caution. It is an inevitable consequence of the belief that he has the election in the bag. But Abbott, who worked for John Hewson, knows there is no such thing as an unloseable election. If the Opposition Leader feels an attack of hubris coming on, consulting a printout of 1993 Newspoll results will quickly cure it. Four weeks before that year's election, Hewson was eight points clear on primary votes and seven points ahead after preferences. Yet Paul Keating won. So Abbott, if he is smart, will ignore the ideologues. He said in a radio interview yesterday: "Our industrial relations policy that (shadow minister) Eric Abetz and I brought out the other day - it's a very middle-of-the-road, sensible centre-type policy." That's where he needs to be. In the middle of the road. At the sensible centre. And not just on industrial relations. HAZEL HAWKE deserved the praise heaped on her since her death. She was a fine first lady during Bob Hawke's years in The Lodge. The words that dominated the tributes - fun, warmth, grace, courage - are all appropriate. But there is a risk that some people will remember her as she was portrayed in the 2010 telemovie, Hawke, on the Ten Network. That would be a pity. I wrote at the time: "Unfortunately, Hazel Hawke is presented as a prim and proper lady, astonishingly controlled in her conversations with a bloke who was a nightmare of a husband. The Hazel Hawke that I knew back then was a tough and feisty Aussie sheila who, when she wanted to, could match Hawke drink for drink and swear word for swear word. I have been present at late-night drinking sessions when Hawke shouted at Hazel and she shouted back and never gave an inch. And Hazel continued to give as good as she got after Hawke became PM.