In democracies and even more so in autocracies, there is this conflation between patriotism and strength, between the claimed national characteristics of a country and the personification of those aspects in the leader. In Australia, strength has always been more ambiguous. Leading into the 1996 election, Paul Keating faced a daunting challenge. A decision was taken to go with his most defining (positive) characteristic and thus Labor's campaign slogan was reduced to one word: ''Leadership.'' Focus group testing conducted after the loss found it was Keating's leadership that had rankled most and that the slogan had merely reminded people of it.

But if Labor strategists are not thinking about strength and toughness right now, they should be. Forget about the risk of reinforcing a negative, Julia Gillard's toughness may be their last best hope after March rounded out the first disastrous quarter of election year 2013. Labor's stocks are again at rock bottom with a primary vote of just 30 per cent, a riven unresponsive party and a leader whose popularity has nose-dived from an already low base. For productive purposes, there are two take-outs from Labor's phantom leadership contest. One is that it has stripped away the government's remaining authority to campaign on its claimed strengths of economic management, education, support for modern working families, and disability insurance. Voters have switched off. These narratives remain valid but the message is being obliterated by the antipathy felt for the messenger. The second take-out from Labor's Ides of March calamity is marginally more positive. It offers at least a slim chance of redemption - perhaps not of survival, but of partial recovery before September 14.

Simply put, it is that Gillard is indestructible. The so-called ''knifing of Kevin Rudd'' is the emblem of this sentiment and has been neatly deployed by opponents to frame most everything since. Gillard is now left with little else if she is to affect an unlikely turnaround. If there is a bright side to the March madness it is that the extreme heat of the leadership crisis has established beyond doubt that Gillard, like the liquid-metal cyborg in the film Terminator 2: Judgment Day, is unstoppable. Conservatives are positioning in case Labor makes this very adjustment - a switch to explicitly marketing Gillard as Churchillian in her toughness. These potentially transformative traits were once attached to John Howard, proving that if you cannot make voters like you, you can make some of them respect you.

Coalition barrackers have been slamming Gillard for the damage her personal ambition has supposedly done to the great tradition of Labor. Some would have you believe they backed the great Labor ''stalwarts'' such as Simon Crean and Martin Ferguson, and that they had voted for the brilliant reforming governments of Hawke and Keating. Just weeks ago they were furiously reminding voters of Rudd's shortcomings, terrified Labor was about to change the game on them. For Labor, the task is to find a way of somehow parlaying Gillard's toughness into leadership strength. Having stuck with her, it has nothing to lose from trying.