Both leaders breathed a sigh of relief when the Great Debate concluded on Sunday night. Their anxiety to avoid misstep was palpable, with the sedate tone of the encounter in stark contrast to the machine gun fire of Question Time and the normally robust tone of their exchanges through the media.
Gillard looked reassuring with her palm-up gestures of supplication, like a school teacher trying to calm a class of anxious HSC students. Abbott tried to play the father figure, reminding us of his experience in raising a family and capacity to make 'tough love' policy decisions.
The whole debate seemed oddly artificial, much like the first week of the campaign. It has been an exercise in 'small target politics' from both sides.
Voters are getting restless.
There is a limit to how far one can use a platitude or a delaying process to brush off a difficult policy decision. Two key planks of the Labor campaign, population and climate change, have been noticeable for a reluctance to actually state any policy. On population, we are to wait for Minister Tony Burke's report on the matter after the election, combined with a refusal to discuss immigration numbers and fertility. The East Timor solution has proved to be no solution at all.
Apparently a community forum is going to develop a community consensus on climate change, where the Parliament could not. This is a gutless solution and I cannot see this position being sustainable through four weeks of campaigning. Voters want to know what the government thinks and what policy position the Government is proposing; after all, a community forum might come up with one set of solutions, which could be ignored by the Government in the end. As many commentators have said, our elected representatives in Canberra already exist to discuss such matters.
There little Christian take-out in the campaign so far, although for a secular democracy it is surprising how often God has got a mention.
The first week of the election has been fairly lacklustre for both sides, but particularly for Labor. Policy stumbles haven't helped as it makes the Government look weak and indecisive.  Moreover, the ghost of Kevin Rudd still looms large, which is a problem for Gillard, not Abbott. Voters want to know how the parties plan to tackle the big, controversial issues and they won't take kindly to four weeks of being treated like school kids.