Back from the Blogging Wilderness
Hello my loyal blog followers...myself and Dad, that is. I have returned after a a rather long hiatus and find myself in a very different political landscape as the one I left. Mckew, did indeed take Bennelong. The Liberals did in fact lose because they were out of touch. and, at long last, the government has apologised to the Stolen Generation for the suffering caused by ill advised social policy.
So all plain sailing now right??? Wrong.
Inflation, the faltering domesteic market, out of control cost of housing, and the threat of recession are all challenges that the Rudd government are already facing. Luckily they have the get out of jail free card of all first term governments..."We inherited this mess from the previous government".
The opposition are in dissaray and doing themselves no favours so far. But that is almost to be expected as they seek to define themselves. With Nelson's approval rating at 9%, the lowest ever recorded, he has plenty to do to define himself. So far he has thoroughly confused himself, caught between trying to extricate himself from the fatally unpopular howard doctrines, while at the same time attempting to stay true to those very same doctrines. You heard it first, here at the dentist, that Nelson will not have to worry as he will never face an election as leader. The question is, who will? Or more specifically, who would want to? A poisoned chalice it is.
Labels: Australian Politics, Brendan Nelson, Kevin Rudd, Stolen Generation
My finger on the pulse, or my hand on my.....
It seems I have either had some rather prestigous visitors to my blog in recent days (unlikely, given the visit counter) or I have managed to articulate what Labor have been thinking over the past week. I quote gratuitously from the SMH:
Labor has accused Prime Minister John Howard of behaving bizarrely in his attempts to turn around opinion polls.Opposition MPs say Mr Howard's warning to colleagues of being annihilated is the latest in a series of attempts win back favour with voters."Last week the Prime Minister said it was all a joke, this week he says he's going to be annihilated," treasury spokesman Wayne Swan told reporters in Canberra today."The only thing that's going to be annihilated around here is taxpayers' money."Mr Swan said the Prime Minister was indulging in blatant political advertising campaigns to improve his short-term prospects instead of the long-term national interest."I think that's pretty evident from his bizarre behaviour in recent days."We started off with the smear campaign back in February, then we had the fear campaign, now of course we've got the ad campaign."Mr Swan said Mr Howard's short-term approach was why opinion polls had turned against the Government.Victorian MP Kelvin Thomson said Mr Howard was just trying to claim the underdog status in voters' eyes."I think that's a piece of political trickiness for which the Prime Minister is notorious," Mr Thomson told reporters.
All royalties or job offers to tripepolitik@gmail.com please... or...at the very least, leave a comment on my page Wayne. :-P
Howard's Choice - I just stumbled across this joke and thought I really should link to it.
Annihilating them in the aisles.
Those kidders, the Australian electorate are poised to
ANNIHILATE the government in the upcoming election, according to John Howard at the party meeting cum news conference held today.
In the carefully staged media event, Howard addressed his party members with a choreographed performance, painting a grim picture to capitalise on his "Underdog" angle to the media
yesterday. You don't use words like
ANNIHILATION in relation to your electoral chances, unless you are trying to draw yourself up as some kind of backs against the wall hero. You don't invite every news organisation in the country either, unless you want to give the impression that it is you who is the underdog in this fight.But perhaps more revealing was his solution to his lagging support... run a campaign against Labor's economic credentials. He has no "Rabbit" to pull out of his hat, he says... the answer lies in undermining the oppositions economic ability.
To me it seems a particularly foolhardy way of winning back the dissillusioned electorate.... trying to emphasise just how much more dissillusioned they'd be under your opposition. This has been the Liberal tactic for the past 10 years, but as mentioned previously in my posts it is starting to wear thin, especially when Team Gillard-Rudd weren't even in Parliament 10 years ago.
The Australian Electorate simply would not fall for such a transparent, flaky strategy like that......again......surely?
Labels: John Howard, Julia Gillard, Kevin Rudd
Everyone loves an underdog....?
It seems today, less than a week after Howard suggested his, and his party's poor showing in the polls was down to the great Aussie
sense of humour, his spin doctors have decided that perhaps belittling a disenchanted public's opinion of him might not perhaps be the best way to win them back. So today, in all of his humble, self effacing glory he changed his tune stating:
"We are behind at the present time and I have been warning for a long time that it would be very hard for the Government to win this election.
"And it's quite clear that the public after 11 years of this Government is contemplating a change. I wouldn't want the Australian people to think I was not understanding that.
"But there is a long way to go and I do believe that as we get closer to the election there will be a greater focus on the consequences of change."
So, for a long time he has been claiming they had a tough fight and were coming in as the underdog on this coming election apparently...even if he was laughing it off as that dry wit of the Australian public just a week ago... It is still interesting to see that in conceding the Australian public want change, he is not prepared to say "I'll do better, I'll try harder", but simply, "Australian's will change their views, not me. They'll see the error of their ways...they'll come round". While trying to promote the fact he is in touch with the public feeling, he is essentially saying the public is wrong in their perception of him, not that he needs to address this perception.
The Public: "You are out of touch"
Johnny: "I hear what you're saying"
The Public: "What do you propose to do to remedy this?"
Johnny:"......you'll come round...er....Labor's got your purse strings! Booger Booger Booger!"
Will someone put the underdog down? He seems to have a incurably diseased perspective.
Labels: John Howard
What's the time Mr Wolfowitz?
It's setting an example to developing nations that nepotism is a corrupt practice time!!!!!!
Labels: Nepotism, Paul Wolfowitz, World Bank
Welcome back (supposed) Plotter
It's expected on Sunday David Hicks will return to Australia after over 5 years imprisonment in Guantanamo bay. He'll then serve 9 months prison in Adelaide before being released, a fully rehabilitated terrorist I assume.
The debate about David Hicks has long been exhausted. It took the might of American Intelligence 5 years to formulate a supposedly fair trial where that evil Genius David Hicks was charged with providing Material Support to Terrorists. Specifically, he staked out the American Embassy in Kabul, that had been abandoned for over 10 years. He was also accused of watching grass grow, and spying on paint drying...
But the "Free David Hicks" calls have now died down, the complicit support of imprisonment without charge, by this Howard government forgotten. Just as they would hope. But it hasn't been forgotten. You rarely can be steadfast and populist at the same time Mr Howard, and the perception that this government is a government that does not believe in liberty, until the notion of liberty becomes popular within the electorate, is a hard stain to shift.
Labels: David Hicks, Guantanamo, John Howard, Terrorism
