When the polls close today and the counting begins (the counting begins!) the election campaign will recede into the mists of time. The Only Poll That Matters will be the focus of the nation's attention, as the first numbers from the first booths start to come in and the computer-generated chambers begin to bob up on our TV screens.
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But before we reach that fateful point, it is worth taking a moment to reflect upon the past five weeks. If only for the cathartic process of piling it up in the backyard and finding something flammable to douse it in.
There were great expectations for campaign 2013. With Kevin Rudd back wearing the prime ministerial beanie and Tony Abbott under more pump than he's been for three years, Australians stocked up on popcorn, cashew nuts and mid-strength beer when the election was called.
Both leaders were known for their high-energy approach to the workplace. Both had also given the nation colourful outbursts in the past. Surely, just surely, fireworks were in the pipeline ahead of September 7.
Sadly, despite the generous booze stocks and the perfect saltiness of the cashews, the campaign has not captivated. In the end, what we got was what we were getting before the election was called, just on higher rotation.
From Rudd we had "jobs" and the threats of Coalition "cuts". From Abbott we had the "scrapping", "stopping" and "ending" of various things and the threat of three more years of c-razy minority rule.
Part of the issue here was that once the campaign began, the polls - if they are to be believed - never predicted a close race. So why should the Coalition do anything different than it had been doing for the last three years? The formula might be more tired than a sports doctor at the end of the Tour de France, but heck, it was working.
Abbott himself conceded as much on Fairfax Radio on Friday: "I have been very careful about making too many commitments in this election campaign".
As for Labor, it had to focus on Rudd to distract from the "internals" and the ghost of Gillard. While this offered the promise of bright shiny Kevin07 mark II, what we got instead was Rudd13 and his (objectively negative) argument that if you vote for the other mob they will make a bunch of cuts they haven't told you about.
Rudd also reached new heights in the long and winding press conference stakes - the man could waffle for Belgium. As a press gallery colleague pointed out, having only recently returned from the backbench wilderness to the biggest political gig in the country, Rudd and his team were not campaign fit.
Campaigning requires a machine that is super well-honed - where communication lines between the different parts of the party actually function and where the advance team clears the way so that the leader doesn't get snapped in front of, say, pictures of Nazis. It also requires a leader who is used to answering questions and spruiking a message all day long. Not just for a minute or two of his own choosing on the way into Parliament.
The fact that there hasn't been much money around made it hard to find great policy nourishment. Sure, Rudd has had a few cracks with his northern tax plan, high-speed rail and cities minister - but all are effectively "ideas" policies that lack the substance of long-term funding to sustain them through more than one day of the media cycle.
So what has that left us with? A campaign where the entertainment was provided piecemeal by the supporting cast: Peter Beattie's shock return to politics, Jaymes Diaz's shock incompetence and Bridget and Frances' shock appearance to introduce their father at the Coalition launch.
True, Abbott strangely had more success at kissing nuns than he did babies. And Rudd's fringe made repeated attempts to stamp its personality on the national stage. But we haven't had any leaks or insurrections - despite Labor's recent troubled history and the Coalition's internal disquiet about its "signature" paid parental leave scheme. With the exception of Diaz and the Coalition's internet filter non-policy, there haven't been any moments of outrageous gaffery.
We had one debate about whether praising someone's sex appeal and good looks is a daggy Dad moment, or whether it is actually inappropriate. And another about costings and whether the Coalition should release them before people started voting. In the end, the Coalition released its figures right at the last minute, Labor jumped up and down and the polls indicated no one else was particularly bothered.
I mean, it's not as if they were talking about cuts to cashews or stopping the beers. And thank goodness for that.
Judith Ireland is a Fairfax journalist.