It's fair to say that the strength of Ed Miliband's attack on News International during last Wednesday's Prime Minister's Questions caught most political spectators by surprise.
Amidst headlines of scandal and skulduggery, the Labour leader took a calculated risk to challenge the most powerful man in media. He called for an immediate inquiry into News of the World, the resignation of News International Chief Executive Rebekah Brooks and seriously questioned David Cameron's decision to hire Andy Coulson, the former News of the World editor who resigned from the tabloid in 2007 over the very same phone hacking controversy.
It was without a doubt the performance of his leadership: clear, confident, and most of all, convincing - a world away from the robotic responses of the interview now infamously dubbed the 'Miliband Loop'.
But, as they say, a day is a long time in politics. With the last edition of the News of the World already lining litter trays, Miliband may come to find that he has staked his career on a story which will be long forgotten everywhere but the newsroom, come election time.
After all, the beast has been slain. Despite the fact that the News of the World closure was likely the pre-emptive strike of a newspaper facing financial collapse, it will still be viewed by many as a shrewd move by James Murdoch. There can be no further calls for advertisers to jump ship, or editors to pen apologies. As is the story of all scandals, it is doubtful that public outrage will continue in the long term with no central figure to fight.
All focus now falls on Rebekah Brooks, who I predict will eventually have to bow to public pressure. Give it a few months, and everyone will be back to talking about the latest footballer to take out a super injunction. Come 2015, election time, and we'll barely be able to remember the paper involved.
But for the 200 blameless journalists now dusting off their CVs, I'm sure that the Labour leader's damning words will be slightly more difficult to forget. Not to mention those still employed by Murdoch, who saw over $400m wiped from News Corporation's share prices in the ensuing panic.
So just where does that leave Ed Miliband? There's no doubt that whilst his passionate and principled stand may have won him admirers in the short term, he - and the rest of the Labour Party - are unlikely to forget that they have made a powerful enemy, and one which could cost them the next election.
However, all is not lost. In the excellent book Where Power Lies: Prime Ministers v The Media, the former BBC journalist and Downing Street staffer Lance Price suggests that politicians' gradual acceptance of the media game has led to an uneven power balance between both sides.
He writes: "By indulging the whims of popular journalism, Downing Street has squandered its greatest asset - the authority of the office of prime minister. Where once the prime minister's words had scarcity value and were listened to with care, they are now devalued to such an extent that they jostle for attention alongside those of anybody else with access to the media."
So with Cameron's close ties to Brooks and Coulson looking increasingly inconvenient, could Miliband's surprising show of principles mark the beginning of a power shift - and a possible turnaround in his fortunes?
But then, given that the next general election is likely to be as unpredictable and hard fought as the previous one, alienating the world's most powerful publisher may just be the bravest move in British politics since John Major's 1995 resignation. And like Major, Miliband is gambling with the highest of stakes - his political career.