COMMENT: PM Julia Gillard's move to call for a Monday leadership ballot is a smart one, writes LES WHITE

It seriously reduces opponent Kevin Rudd's ability to lobby for support from his Labor colleagues.

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Rudd will return to Australia tomorrow and has only the weekend to try to turn the numbers his way.

Had he been given a full week after returning to Australia, he would no doubt be able to convince more MPs to vote for him.

The move isn't fair on Rudd, but politics isn't fair.

The more time MPs were given to think about their vote, the more would have dwelled on whether Gillard could really lead them to victory at the next election.

Rudd wrong-footed Gillard by resigning as Foreign Minister before she could sack him and he seized the moral high ground by pointing out Gillard was allowing vicious attacks on him from other Ministers.

This morning's press conference by Rudd contained another example of Rudd outpointing Gillard - this time he asked his supporters not to engage in verbal attacks on Gillard in the media, saying politics should be better than that.

Again he's on the moral high ground.

Gillard's call for Rudd to promise he'll not challenge again should she win this ballot was smart but won't work.

He's not that silly. If he loses respectably and Labor's numbers under Gillard stay low, he'll challenge again.

Rudd aims to frame the issue as a decision about who is best equipped as leader to defeat Liberal leader Tony Abbott at the next election.

This is by far his best shot. Labor MPs in marginal seats are looking at losing their jobs and possibly their accrued benefits if they're wiped out.

They need something to change.

Labor's polling under Rudd was stellar. The party was in front by ridiculous margins most of the time he was PM and still up 52-48 in the Newspoll the week it dumped Rudd.

Currently Labor is at 46-54 in the Newspoll under Gillard.

Gillard has never been able to have the party consistently match even the worst numbers achieved under Rudd.

As some Labor MPs realise Gillard can't win the next election but are loathe to go to Rudd, should a compromise candidate emerge - be it Defence Minister Stephen Smith or Regional Australia Minister Simon Crean - they could do very well.