mahathir hitting badawi below the belt

Mahathir's latest salvo at Badawi was below the belt. He made it public that Badawi was not his number One choice, attempting to insinuate that Badawi was not good enough. It was very fortunate that Badawi won a landslide victory to confirm that the people were behind him and supported him. Now all the cabinet ministers too came out to defend him. That is good for the time being. But they cannot keep on defending and allow Mahathir to attack unrestrained. In order to take on Mahathir effectively before being hurt as the constant attack will eventually lead to a change of mind in the people, Badawi must go on the offensive and attack Mahathir's mistakes. Hang up his dirty laundry to dry as well. And for this he will need a charismatic orator to deal with Mahathir. The current batch of cabinet ministers is not in the class of Mahathir to take him on. And none will dare to do so.