Take, for instance, Gerard Henderson, conservative commentator and co-director of the Sydney Institute. I know there are those who don’t agree with his politics but he has, usually, been perfectly lovely to me; and that includes giving his family’s old piano to my kids when they started to play. So I invited him into my column this week and he kindly agreed to come.

Let me introduce Antony Loewenstein, who I know reasonably well. We have friends in common, plus we are both Jewish. In reality that means I often ask him whether he’s getting married (yes, I’m applying a shocking stereotype to myself because it’s true). And he often replies by telling me it’s none of my business.

He writes a regular column for The Guardian as does the lovely Van Badham. I met her for the first time in real life a couple of weeks back (but many times on Twitter) when I stroked her very striking green trousers at a rally we both attended. I don’t know her well enough to start handing out relationship advice but it can only be a matter of time.

The new bloke, at least to me, is Peter Reith, a former Howard minister, who now writes columns for Fairfax and was just charming when we chatted yesterday.

What did I ask this august gathering?

Well, I wanted to know whether it really matters what we think about the Prime Minister now.

After all, it’s more than two years until the next election. Time for us to forget the 2014 budget. Time to forget that $7 on top of the tax we already pay for universal health care.

I asked these noted commentators across the political spectrum about whether it’s possible to recover from catastrophic polls, to see if there was some kind of middle ground where one could best survey the works of the Abbott government.

There is some disagreement about whether Tony Abbott is really unpopular. As Antony pointed out, the not-yet-Prime Minister was unpopular before the election; and Gerard says the perceived unpopularity mainly resides with the professional classes in the inner city. Peter says Australians are far too sensible to make a decision about a government so early in its terms.

He says: “There are lots of big issues on the plate for the public to take into account and trying to judge public opinion by polls or anecdotes now is far too early.

“The historical facts are that incoming Australian first-term governments always get second terms because the public view is that once elected they like to give them plenty of time to settle down.”

So the social media thing? The loathing of Abbott so we read tweets with hashtags such as #morepopularthanabbott or #wearebetterthanthis?

Van says it’s crucial. The mistakes are copied and recopied and the brand damage is fatal, she says. Anyway, she asks, did you notice how so few people attended the Convoy of No Confidence (the march organised to protest against Julia Gillard and the carbon price) compared with the thousands and thousands who came (twice!) to Marches in March and May?

But here’s the thing. Every single one of these commentators, with thousands of words among them, agreed that no matter how we feel right now, Tony Abbott can survive as prime minister. He mightn’t be loved, as John Howard was by many. He mightn’t be idolised, as Bob Hawke was by many.

In fact, the key thing is probably, at least according to Gerard, that he is perceived as strong and “respected rather than popular”. As he pointed out, Australia’s most recent enormously popular prime minister, Kevin Rudd, couldn’t even make it through to the end of his first term.

“In the last election, Abbott won one of the greatest victories, bigger than '72, bigger than '83. He had a majority of Australians with him.”

And even if you decided to vote against Abbott, you might be left with choosing the Labor Party; and as Antony points out, they began the privatisation of education, sped up the privatisation of health.

Van nods furiously. She says that Labor has struggled with its brand since it embraced economic rationalism.

“The most disgusting act of betrayal was when the Labor Party convinced the unions to support the HECS system.”

So I’m left washing up the glasses and the teacups. And wondering if the real question is not whether the Prime Minister is unpopular but whether the Labor Party can rebuild enough to be worth voting for.

Twitter @jennaprice or email jenna_p@bigpond.net.au