Gary,
It's only been a couple of months since the leadership election and it appears there have been a number of defections to the Turnbull camp. Nelson is a compromise leader caught between the hard-line conservatives led by Abbott wanting to carry on the Howard legacy and the moderates/reformers led by Turnbull. The conscious vote solution would have seen the pro-sorry group led by Turnbull in the majority making Nelson appear weak and stupid.

Steve,
Nelson as a compromise candidate squeezed is a good interpretation of what is going on. Where does Minchin stand? Beside Abbott defending the Howard legacy?

The Coalition sure is in a hard place now that their economic credentials are tainted---in tatters?-- by an explosion in the inflation rate.

Their current media presence is one of internal conflict and division however much they try to paper over the divisions with new style consultative leadership.

Nan,
Your comment that "the [inward looking] Coalition sure is in a hard place now that their economic credentials are tainted" is a theme of Dennis Shanahan's op-ed in The Australian. He says:

The Coalition used a $10billion “black hole” and a Labor debt of $96billion as two telling images to skewer Labor’s economic credibility for its entire term. If Labor can destroy the Coalition’s economic credentials over interest rates and inflation it will achieve a double, and long-term, political victory.

He notes that they--Rudd and Swan--- have refused to criticize either Treasury or the Reserve Bank and allocate nearly all the blame to the Howard Government. The other bad guys are the Big Banks.

Posts about John Howard really are boring blogging.
C'mon get over it!

Les,
I read Nan and Peter as addressing the issue of the Liberals now under Nelson dealing with the problem of how to move the Liberals on from the past.