The Labor Party is smack bang in the middle of its national conference, a bigger deal than ever because it has a new leader and the party is 16 points ahead in the opinion polls well into an election year. But on Saturday, the Prime Minister stole page one right around the country. While Labor debated whether or not to mine uranium, John Howard announced the go-ahead for a nuclear power industry. He and Treasurer Peter Costello used a mere state-based political conference in Melbourne to deflect most of the political arrows that Labor leader Kevin Rudd had fired in their direction. But playing the nuclear card could either be clever or too clever by half.