Prime Minister Kevin Rudd believes Labor has found the ideal candidate to win back the former federal seat of his coalition predecessor John Howard.
Campaigning in Sydney's north west, Mr Rudd stopped in the high-profile electorate of Bennelong.
He said Labor's candidate Jason Yat-Sen Li has the form for 2013, and is even smarter than himself.
"Compared with our candidate here in Bennelong I feel a bit dumb ... he speaks five languages, I only speak two," he said told a group of senior Korean residents at the Ryde Uniting Church.
Mr Li was called up last month to run in Bennelong when Labor's first choice, Jeff Salvestro-Martin, was sacked after being caught up in the Independent Commission against Corruption's inquiry into Ryde Council.
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The seat has swung for and against Labor since Mr Howard's 33-year tenure ended in the "Rudd-slide" of 2007 and is held by Liberal and tennis champion John Alexander, on a 3.1 per cent margin.
In 2007, Mr Rudd campaigned in Bennelong alongside journalist-turned Labor contender Maxine McKew, who won the seat before losing it in 2010.
Bennelong has a large Asian population, its residents are business-minded, upwardly mobile and the area has enjoyed strong growth in property prices.
The prime minister tried to charm voters by speaking a few lines of Korean, before throwing to Mr Li, who's of Chinese heritage and spends much of his time working in Asia.
"This guy has a big career in business," Mr Rudd said on Wednesday.
Team Labor received polite smiles and nods from the attentive audience, before the prime minister was hit by an unexpected question.
"What about the North West Rail Link?"
The NSW coalition government has been left with the $8 billion bill for the major transport link because neither federal Labor nor the coalition have earmarked assistance for the project.
Mr Rudd said he wouldn't be drawn into a discussion on the issue and referred questions to infrastructure minister Anthony Albanese.
"I'm going to let Albo answer those," he said.
But Mr Albanese wasn't there.
Earlier, Mr Rudd went to St Anthony's Catholic primary school at Girraween in Sydney's west.
The seat of Greenway is Labor's most vulnerable in NSW, held by Michelle Rowland on a 0.9 per cent margin, and could fall to the Liberals on September 7.
Mr Rudd played ball and read books with students and promoted Labor's $450 million extension to its out of school hours child care program.
He said Labor was working hard to keep the economy strong to underpin such programs and keep family living costs under control.
In contrast, the coalition's economic management plans were a "shambles".
Mr Rudd could remain in Sydney for another day.
