Politicians often face flak for stage-managing public appearances, so we can hardly criticise the PM for failing to do so during his ill fated visit to Edgeworth Tavern on Wednesday night.
But sources on both sides of politics were left wondering why Scott Morrison or his advisers chose a drinking hole in Labor heartland for this unvarnished public appearance on the eve of an election campaign.
The outcome was an angry confrontation with a disability pensioner whom the PM identified on Thursday as "Ray". The incident was captured on video and disseminated by the Newcastle Herald and national media.
Ray harangued Mr Morrison over issues relating to his pension and his partner's immigration status, shouting and stabbing his finger towards the nation's leader.
He also offered the PM a free character assessment over his failure to establish a federal corruption watchdog.
"I'm sick of your bullshit," he concluded.
Just got to give Slomo my sincerest congratulations #auspol #auspol2022 #AlboForPM #CallTheElectionDickhead #Australia #ScottyThePathologicalLiar #ScottyTheGaslighter pic.twitter.com/oygBxSO8Vk
— hunting4wolves (@hunting4wolves) April 6, 2022
Another punter, a young woman also clearly not a fan, recorded and tweeted an embarrassing video in which she appears beside the smiling PM and offers her cheery "congratulations on being the worst Prime Minister we've ever had". The tweet had attracted almost 210,000 views and 2380 retweets by 6pm on Thursday.
To his credit, Mr Morrison handled the altercation with the pensioner about as well as he could and offered to make his staff available to hear the man's concerns.
And some punters the Herald spoke to at the pub talked positively about the PM's performance as leader.
But the fact remains that "Ray" joined a long list of political figures, many of them Liberals, who have publicly questioned the Prime Minister's honesty in recent weeks.
Perhaps not coincidentally, two opinion polls early this week had Labor leader Anthony Albanese edging ahead of Mr Morrison as preferred prime minister.
The last thing the PM needed was a public dressing down from a real person, especially an older one.
The odd thing about the Edgeworth Tavern visit was that this kind of bad press was avoidable. Mr Morrison could have gone somewhere more sedate.
The Herald understands he spent the latter part of the evening at the five-star Kingsley hotel in the CBD.
The polling booth at Edgeworth Public School, which is in the seat of Hunter and directly across the road from the tavern, recorded a Nationals vote of just 14 per cent at the last federal election. The Liberals did not field a candidate in the seat.
It was entirely predictable (indeed, local journalists and politicians raised the point on Wednesday afternoon) that a visit to Edgeworth Tavern could be a lively affair.
Newcastle voters have a history of heckling visiting conservative leaders. Just ask Gladys Berejiklian.
And Mr Morrison has his own history of damaging interractions with the public.
The media did capture images of the PM pouring beer for the locals, a set piece more in keeping with a politician's PR playbook, but the damage had been done.
Some political insiders predict he will call the election on Friday.
If that is the case, he has six weeks to reverse the slide in his personal popularity.
