YOU could almost hear the steam hissing from the ears of the elderly voter striding towards Tony Windsor's office on Peel Street in Tamworth, ready to voice his protest against the independent MP for New England serving as Julia Gillard's political saviour.
Then he catches the eye of Mr Windsor seated outside, and the MP gives him that howyadoin' nod of acknowledgement.
''Pretty angry,'' the voter scowls back, choosing not to confront him in person but to let his displeasure be known through Windsor staff. Tony Windsor can only shrug his shoulders.
There's little he can do immediately to placate those constituents who believe his siding with Labor was a treacherous act to an electorate solidly National Party until the Windsor ascendancy nine years ago (he was the independent state MP for Tamworth for 10 years before that).
But then another voter, this one in overalls, patiently waits on the footpath.
''Can I shake your hand?'' he says to Mr Windsor.
That's the other side of the coin. Bitterness and congratulations. On his return home from participation in one of Australia's more historic days - the news conference that stopped a nation - he was confronted with brickbats and greeted with bouquets. Some emails were nasty, others laudatory.
And who would have expected anything else, given this election truly divided Australia?
Mr Windsor was being equable. ''I haven't experienced any hostility,'' he said, fooling no one. ''Twenty thousand people [in New England] voted for the National Party [where Mr Windsor began his political involvement] and probably some people who voted for me aren't very happy with the decision.
''But once people see the extraordinary advantages in this for country Australia and this electorate, I think the electorate will understand … there are no negatives in this.''
He and Rob Oakeshott, the other country independent to side with Labor, thereby delivering the slimmest of parliamentary majorities to the ALP, had seized ''our opportunity to use the Parliament strategically to drive'' pro-country policies.
Mr Windsor said that, unlike Mr Oakeshott, he had not been offered an executive role in government because ''I made it very plain on day one that I wasn't interested''.
The farmer Bede Burke, the chairman of the local National Party, said yesterday he had been bombarded with protests from voters objecting to Mr Windsor's choice, including from Windsor supporters now threatening to return to the National Party fold.
Mr Burke had earlier been philosophical about the impact on Mr Windsor's electability, saying New England voters were very forgiving of Mr Windsor.
But the strength of protest unleashed by the Windsor-Oakeshott decision had surprised him, Mr Burke said.
''People are just stunned. And I don't think this government can hold it together for 12 months. The independents have squandered what advantage they held in demanding a better deal from the Coalition,'' he said.
''But I'm going to give him one more line of credit. To be fair to him, we'll assess what he's able to win for the electorate, but it probably won't be any more than was available under Tony Abbott.''
And that wait-and-see is precisely what Tony Windsor expects. To get it from those who have worked for years to unseat him is the unexpected bonus.
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