That attitude is how we are guaranteed to lose in 2016.
My preference was for Albanese and I think Shorten is a risk, but ... I started to waver when I was about to fill out my ballot - Shorten genuinely impressed me over the last 2 weeks and frankly Albanese was disappointing me in that he was talking about strategy, which is fine, but barely touching policy.
The job now is to grow up, accept the result and work like buggery to bring the creep and his c-grade team down.
The bigger worry I have is not the fact that Shorten's now leader, but how he ascended to the position in some sort of factional stoush... That said, you're right that the party needs to unite behind him to give the strongest performance against Abbott in 2016.
Also, here is my final guess for how the caucus vote went down (with 100% margin of error). Feel free to make corrections/suggested changes.
Shorten (55)1. Bill Shorten, MP for Maribyrnong, VIC
2. Bob Carr, Senator NSW
3. Sam Dastyari, Senator for NSW
4. Ursula Stephens, Senator NSW
5. Jacinta Collins, Senator VIC
6. Stephen Conroy, Senator VIC
7. Mehmet Tillem, Senator VIC
8. Glenn Sterle, Senator for WA
9. Mark Bishop, Senator WA
10. Don Farrell, Senator for SA
11. Alex Gallacher, Senator SA
12. Catryna Bilyk, Senator for TAS
13. Helen Polley, Senator for TAS
14. Mark Furner, Senator QLD
15. John Hogg, Senator QLD
16. Joe Ludwig, Senator QLD
17. Kate Lundy, Senator ACT
18. Nova Peris, Senator NT
19. Laurie Ferguson, MP for Werriwa, NSW
20. Sharon Bird, MP for Cunningham, NSW
21. Chris Bowen, MP for McMahon, NSW
22. Tony Burke, MP for Watson, NSW
23. Jason Clare, MP for Blaxland, NSW
24. Joel Fitzgibbon, MP for Hunter, NSW
25. Chris Hayes, MP for Fowler, NSW
26. Julie Owens, MP for Parramatta, NSW
27. Michelle Rowland, MP for Greenway, NSW
28. Matt Thistlethwaite, MP for Kingsford Smith, NSW
29. Ed Husic, MP for Chifley, NSW
30. Anthony Byrne, MP for Holt, VIC
31. Mark Dreyfus, MP for Isaacs, VIC
32. David Feeney, MP for Batman, VIC
33. Richard Marles, MP for Corio, VIC
34. Rob Mitchell, MP for McEwen, VIC
35. Anna Burke, MP for Chisholm, VIC
36. Lisa Chesters, MP for Bendigo, VIC
37. Michael Danby, MP for Melbourne Ports, VIC
38. Jim Chalmers, MP for Rankin, QLD
39. Shayne Neumann, MP for Blair, QLD
40. Bernie Ripoll, MP for Oxley, QLD
41. Kate Ellis, MP for Adelaide, SA
42. Warren Snowdon, MP for Lingiari, NT
43. Andrew Giles, MP for Scullin, VIC
44. Brendan O’Connor, MP for Gorton, VIC
45. Clare O’Neil, MP for Hotham, VIC
46. Alan Griffin, MP for Bruce, VIC
47. Joanne Ryan, MP for Lalor, VIC
48. Kelvin Thompson, MP for Wills, VIC
49. Maria Vamvakinou, MP for Calwell, VIC
50. Tim Watts, MP for Gellibrand, VIC
51. Wayne Swan, MP for Lilley, QLD
52. Gary Gray, MP for Brand, WA
53. Nick Champion, MP for Wakefield, SA
54. Amanda Rishworth, MP for Kingston, SA
55. Gai Brodtmann, MP for Canberra, ACT
Albanese (31)1. Anthony Albanese, MP for Grayndler, NSW
2. Doug Cameron, Senator for NSW
3. John Faulkner, Senator NSW
4. Kim Carr, Senator VIC
5. Gavin Marshall, Senator VIC
6. Louise Pratt, Senator for WA
7. Sue Lines, Senator WA
8. Penny Wong, Senator for SA
9. Anne McEwen, Senator SA
10. Carol Brown, Senator for TAS
11. Lisa Singh, Senator TAS
12. Lin Thorp, Senator TAS
13. Anne Urquhart, Senator TAS
14. Jan McLucas, Senator QLD
15. Claire Moore, Senator QLD
16. Sharon Claydon, MP for Newcastle, NSW
17. Pat Conroy, MP for Charlton, NSW
18. Jill Hall, MP for Shortland, NSW
19. Tanya Plibersek, MP for Sydney, NSW
20. Justine Elliot, MP for Richmond, NSW
21. Stephen Jones, MP for Throsby, NSW
22. Jenny Macklin, MP for Jagajaga, VIC
23. Catherine King, MP for Ballarat, VIC
24. Graham Perrett, MP for Moreton, QLD
25. Kevin Rudd, MP for Griffith, QLD
26. Alannah MacTiernan, MP for Perth, WA
27. Melissa Parke, MP for Fremantle, WA
28. Mark Butler, MP for Port Adelaide, SA
29. Julie Collins, MP for Franklin, TAS
30. Andrew Leigh, MP for Fraser, ACT
31. Tony Zappia, MP for Makin, SA