Gerard Henderson rounds up the dud prophets of Liberal doom: Last September, David Marr began his essay Political Animal with an unequivocal statement: "Australia doesn't want Tony Abbott. We never have.... It is always unwise in politics to underestimate opponents. Much of Labor's campaign against the Coalition has been motivated by Rod Cameron's view, first expressed in December 2010, that Abbott was "unelectable." This opinion was shared by Labor strategist Bruce Hawker... Some academics are out of their depth when analysing the Liberal Party and its leaders. In 1993, Judith Brett wrote that "the Liberal Party in the 1990s seems doomed." The Coalition won office within three years. In 2007, Norman Abjorensen commented that the Liberal Party "could soon be over" and predicted its replacement by a "new centrist party." The Coalition was back in office within six years. Abbott replaced Malcolm Turnbull shortly before byelections in the Sydney seat of Bradfield and the Melbourne seat of Higgins. On December 5, 2009, the morning of the elections, Brett prophesied in The Age that under Abbott's leadership "the Liberals risk becoming a down-market protest party of angry old men and the outer suburbs." On the eve of the Higgins by-election, Robert Manne in The Australian canvassed the possibility of the Greens winning and suggested this could lead to "the destruction of the Liberal Party." Manne sneered at Abbott as the "troglodyte-in-chief." The Liberals comfortably retained both seats. As recently as July 16, journalist Michael Short wrote in The Age that "Tony Abbott now looks an even bet to emulate his former boss John Hewson who in 1993 lost what was widely considered an unlosable election."