Kevin Rudd

[dutchie]

Re: Kevin Rudd degrades the office of PM

Will be interesting to see how he goes tomorrow on the "Insiders" (ABC)

 

[specialed]

Re: Kevin Rudd degrades the office of PM

That's the worst that can be said of him?


P.

That three from the past 7 days.....Im sure the list for the last 12 months will be somewhat larger.....

 

[Smurf1976]

Re: Kevin Rudd degrades the office of PM

Maybe, but degrading from what standard? His immediate predecessor? (I would beg to disagree with that conclusion). Or some other higher better standard in the past, or theoretical?

Prior to Howard's election as PM, one of the often repeated arguments was that Howard "would be a Prime Minister we can respect", a reference to the antics of former PM Paul Keating. I'm no fan of Howard, but I'd argue that he certainly didn't cause the level of embarassment that Keating did.

In Keating's defence however, I've little doubt that he is very smart in an intellectual sense and is very much a forward thinker who "gets it", but he also fits that stereotype in terms of lacking some other skills.

 

[Happy]

Re: Kevin Rudd degrades the office of PM

It is simply frustrating that system creates monsters.
Our re-election sometimes is the only drive for politicians.

Promisses are cheap and memories short.

Also different groups of socio-economic status will focus on not necessarily best candidate.

From time to time I wander should we be better off with honest dictator, who above all would concentrate on what is best for our Country, not on popularity contest to scrape through the next election.

 

[prawn_86]

Re: Kevin Rudd degrades the office of PM

From time to time I wander should we be better off with honest dictator, who above all would concentrate on what is best for our Country, not on popularity contest to scrape through the next election.

Yeh its a bit of a raffle, but im still a fan of (in theory) a monarchy/dictatorship providing the king/leader has the countries best interestes at heart. Of course power corrupts etc, so it would never work for extended periods, but at least having one person in charge would mean things get done quicker and are in the countries interest, not the politicians interest of being re-elected. There would be no gov 'fat', pensions, travel expenses, committees etc etc etc

I guess the other way it could be dne is to simply pay pollies at a wage that the 'average' CEO or upper management gets and then when they are out thats it, no pensions or perks. This would then cause them to strive for longevity

 

[drsmith]

Re: Kevin Rudd degrades the office of PM

Honest dictator ??

Power corrupts. Absolute power...........

Perhaps politics is increasingly becoming about reducing leadership to dictatorship as much as possible. More and more it seems to be about the leader and less about the party as a whole.

Are we be seeing the slow decline of democracy into something much less ?

 

[Calliope]

Re: Kevin Rudd degrades the office of PM

I'm afraid that at present in Canberra we have very bad amalgam of bureaucrats and former union leaders running the administration, and relying on an army of highly paid academic advisers for guidance. None of these groups have had any experience in running an efficient business.

They are not only degrading the office of PM, they are degrading the country.

I refer you again to the ABC of Rudd's degradation of his office.

http://www.smh.com.au/opinion/polit...ralia-in-the-alphabet-soup-20100221-ontz.html

 

[Garpal Gumnut]

Rudd A Dead Parrot

I am watching Rudd on Insiders this morning.

He looks rattled, will not answer a question directly (as ever) and even has Barrie Cassidy a left wing commentator unable to save him from himself.

He's doing a comprehensive "Peter Beattie" impersonation, but not as convincingly.

Julia, Greg, John, Joe, Stephen Major, Stephen Minor, and Mar'n will be doing the numbers today and in to the coming weeks.

Rudd is gorne.

gg

 

[noco]

Re: Rudd A Dead Parrot

I am watching Rudd on Insiders this morning.

He looks rattled, will not answer a question directly (as ever) and even has Barrie Cassidy a left wing commentator unable to save him from himself.

He's doing a comprehensive "Peter Beattie" impersonation, but not as convincingly.

Julia, Greg, John, Joe, Stephen Major, Stephen Minor, and Mar'n will be doing the numbers today and in to the coming weeks.

Rudd is gorne.

gg

Just watched Rudd on Insiders.

Barrie Cassidy as predicted, SOFTLY-SOFTLY-SOFTLY.

Give Cassidy 1 out 0f 10 against Red Kerrie 10 out of 10 on the 7.30 report.

Rudd did look a little rattled in his impersiation of Peter Beattie. He has a lot of catching up to do to match our dear old Pete.

 

[Mr J]

Re: Kevin Rudd degrades the office of PM

From time to time I wander should we be better off with honest dictator, who above all would concentrate on what is best for our Country, not on popularity contest to scrape through the next election.

Yes, but wouldn't trust anyone other than myself to do it. I used to believe a direct democracy would be a good idea, but soon realised people are nowhere near informed enough to be making important decisions, and will just vote with bias and emotion anyway. Politicians aren't really any better, but at least they can be bribed.

 

[So_Cynical]

Re: Rudd A Dead Parrot

Rudd is gorne.

gg

Another week and yet another Rudd/Garrett/Gillard/Labor bashing exercise....GG your nothing if not entirely predictable with your right wing views and contempt of all things labor.

I've just have a run around all the betting sites trying to find a market for 'Labor leader at next election' but i cant find one :dunno: strange thing is there's no problem finding markets for 'Coalition leader at next election' its almost like the betting agency's have decided Rudd's leadership is a no brainer so cannot be bothered to take bets on a non event.

Abbott's at about $1.70 so looking pretty safe there....as for betting on the election, even with the good 2 weeks the coalition has had, nothing much has changed, the coalition has improved there overall position by 2.9% according to this crikey politics blog.

http://blogs.crikey.com.au/pollytics/2010/02/26/betting-market-friday-4/

The 5 online betting agency's taking bets on the election all have the ALP at about $1.28 and the LNP $3.80, now for those amongst us that are super conservative and don't have a good understanding of gambling ill put this in terms they can easily understand.

The Liberal national party coalition has no chance in hell of winning this election...there Gorne

EDIT/ and good to see the MODs are doing there job and merging threads like these...WD

 

[AngusSmart]

Re: Media turns on Rudd

its like that south park episode..

you have to choose between a turd and a douche..

we're ****ed for choice here

 

[IFocus]

Re: Media turns on Rudd

This is the perception that Labor is trumpeting. "Look at us, look at us". Once again it took a teenager on Q&A to silence Lindsay Tanner on this issue. He was boasting of Australia's financial standing compared against the rest of the Western World leading to how well Labor has handled the crisis.

The question/comment from the audience: "Mr Tanner, Australia was best placed financially before the GFC - you have done nothing but maintain that position. It would be a bigger story if Australia WASN'T well placed compared to others".

Swan would do well to remember that also.

Duckman

Just read the above

The fact is we were very, very, lucky.

Lucky that the rise of commodity boom times fed back into our economy remember the libs were in power during a massive expansion of gov income.

Lucky that Howard didn't win the election with his over the top ambitious spending plans.

Lucky we had a new Labor government that went with Treasury head Ken Henry and acted aggressively ahead of the curve unlike US,UK and Europe.

Lucky that our banks rip us off on the fees they charge and make embarrassingly large amounts of profit so didn't need to get over exposed to derivatives. This is the really big one.

Lucky housing prices remained up under pinned by gov 1st home buyers so under pinning banks cap levels.

I could go on and on but the GFC was a contagion and people have remarkably short memory's

Oh and the fat lady still hasn't sung yet now that sovereign risk is in play and Australia cannot afford a dim wit like Barnaby running finance and a shadow treasurer that can only say glib one liners.

 

[Mr J]

Re: Media turns on Rudd

Lucky that Howard didn't win the election with his over the top ambitious spending plans.

Yes, instead we were graced with Mr Rudd's spending spree.

 

[Mr J]

Re: Kevin Rudd degrades the office of PM

The Liberal national party coalition has no chance in hell of winning this election

Of course they do. Even if we assume those estimates are accurate, which I doubt they are, they have a 25% chance of winning. Thinking it is no chance in hell is something I'd expect from a footy commentator.

Assuming prices in betting shops reflect true probabilities is as flawed as assuming it in the financial markets.

 

[So_Cynical]

Re: Kevin Rudd degrades the office of PM

Of course they do. Even if we assume those estimates are accurate, which I doubt they are, they have a 25% chance of winning. Thinking it is no chance in hell is something I'd expect from a footy commentator.

Assuming prices in betting shops reflect true probabilities is as flawed as assuming it in the financial markets.

Of course your right...same as any horse can win the Melb cup etc but in reality that's a crock, when it comes to gambling there's smart money and muggs money, the LNP has no chance in hell...the odds reflect a black swan type event as the only real chance the LNP has of winning.

 

[IFocus]

Re: Media turns on Rudd

Yes, instead we were graced with Mr Rudd's spending spree.

Lucky we had a new Labor government that went with Treasury head Ken Henry and acted aggressively ahead of the curve unlike US,UK and Europe.

 

[basilio]

Re: Kevin Rudd degrades the office of PM

I'm getting a bit fed up with Rudd bashing in this forum.

"Rudd degrading the office of PM" What unspeakable act, gross studipity, corruption or whatever justifies such a statement . ([I Of course I'm sure one of our resident rudd bashers can find some excuse to warrant the slur.[/I])

I think Kevin Rudd can be fairly criticized and if he doesn't have a good rethink about how effective the public service needs to be he deserves to get a boot up the bum. I suspect it might come from his own side however.

But when I think of people who "degrade the office of PM" I keep remembering Howard deliberately vilifying boat people( "Children overboard") to split the Labour party and fire up some good old fashioned hate and fear politics.

I remember the decision to support the war in Iraq when there was plenty of evidence that it was totally dishonest ie there were no weapons of mass destruction, Saddam had nothing to do with 9/11.

I suggest Rudd has a long way to go before he reaches those levels of duplicity.

Can we tone down the hate mail ?

 

[IFocus]

Re: Kevin Rudd degrades the office of PM

I'm getting a bit fed up with Rudd bashing in this forum.

"Rudd degrading the office of PM" What unspeakable act, gross studipity, corruption or whatever justifies such a statement . ([I Of course I'm sure one of our resident rudd bashers can find some excuse to warrant the slur.[/I])

I think Kevin Rudd can be fairly criticized and if he doesn't have a good rethink about how effective the public service needs to be he deserves to get a boot up the bum. I suspect it might come from his own side however.

But when I think of people who "degrade the office of PM" I keep remembering Howard deliberately vilifying boat people( "Children overboard") to split the Labour party and fire up some good old fashioned hate and fear politics.

I remember the decision to support the war in Iraq when there was plenty of evidence that it was totally dishonest ie there were no weapons of mass destruction, Saddam had nothing to do with 9/11.

I suggest Rudd has a long way to go before he reaches those levels of duplicity.

Can we tone down the hate mail ?

Enough of bashing the lying little rodent......

How about Malcolm losing his pants in the US

 

[Datsun Disguise]

Re: Kevin Rudd degrades the office of PM

I was quite shocked by Rudd's perfromance today, even in the face of stuff ups like the ETS, insulation, green loans, school halls et al, you still expect these guys to be able to put up a confident response - I was waiting for him to burst into tears. That would have made me squirm no doubt.

Was this all about trying to impersonate Pete b because every one liked him and he could own up to stuff and seem honest?

If this was Rudd being 'honest' then it was a suit that certainly didn't fit him well. I found some of his comments incredible. Top of the list was something like 'Gee whiz, this governemnt stuff (I'm sure there was a 'business of' in there somewhere) is a bit harder than we thought' This commetn made in trying to explain the undelivered promises and poorly executed schemes.

A change of labor leadership hadn't even crossed my mind until this mornings show, but I think I agree with GG - come Monday we might just see a book open on the leadership at the next election. Still think he'll be there, but the rank and file won't be happy with what they saw this morning.

Finally - to those who think that negative threads on encumbent governments are just a bunch of whingers carrying on, it's more about scutiny and holding our leadership to high standards. If we don't then what??