Add to ORKGKevin Rudd ends 2008 in good shape, writes PETER BRENT on our partner website, Inside Story. Does recent history help us predict what happens next? KEVIN RUDD ended his first year in office much like John Howard ended his first twelve months in March 1997: still shiny, fresh and popular. It’s not that these new leaders have a special empathy with middle Australia or never put a foot wrong. It’s just that when a mistake is made it is ignored by the opinion polls and forgotten. The electorate is not really paying attention. On several occasions earlier this year, for example, opposition leader Brendan Nelson quite evidently wrong-footed the government, and after one particularly bad week in May Laurie Oakes wrote in News Ltd pape...