Labor looks for better salesmanship  By Misha Schubert Political
Correspondent October 11, 2004  Graphic: The Age  It's the
economy, stupid! As the dust settled on Labor's defeat
yesterday, insiders agreed on at least one clear lesson: the
party needs an aggressive economic strategy for it to wrest back
government.  "Interest rates were the Tampa of 2004," said one
insider yesterday. "We've got to improve our salesmanship on how
we can handle the economy."  That this issue, more than any
other, was Labor's Achilles heel showed up time and again in the
party's internal research.  On Saturday, almost one in two
people who voted for the Coalition in key NSW marginals said
interest rates were the issue that decided their vote.  Then
there was the taxi driver in one focus group who liked Mark
Latham and the health and schools policies, "but I don't want to
lose my house".  As Labor's assistant national secretary, Mike
Kaiser, conceded yesterday: "We need to engage on the debate on
the economy."  Labor figures admi