I couldn’t help thinking watching Q&A that as a Prime Minister Kevin Rudd makes a good Opposition Leader, and that whatever his Mandarin speaking skills, he’s a creditable Mandarin.
Large numbers gushed in answer to every question, and at one point he even referred to the Opposition as the Government. So it was billions of dollars into this or that, and then a swipe at his opponents. I am very impressed that he can remember the details of so much policy, but will the electors be so impressed if the economy starts to slow down? For Kevin it seems to be all too easy to sound like a “feral abacus”. His advisors need to school him on what $20 billion of tax cuts mean to the average taxpayer. How many extra litres of fuel, or haircuts, or school shoes does it add up to. That’s what working families want to know.
He also needs to work on his personal conviction. If John Black is right that Rudd won on the evangelical Christian vote, then saying that your Christianity won’t play a part in your cabinet deliberations is not a good tactic. Next time he should stop and ask himself “What would Dietrich Boenhoffer say?” And he compounded it by saying he was only a “common garden variety Christian”. I can hear a shuffling in the pews and the sound of three cock crows.
He also needs to work on his empathy. Looking and sounding like a good public servant and laying out the 7 year plans and saying you can’t do any better is not what voters want from Prime Ministers. It didn’t take him long to say the equivalent of “this is as good as it gets”, and he’s only been in the job for not quite 6 months.
I think his media advisors will keep him away from live audiences for a while. Full marks to the ABC for getting the “interns” into the office to ask the hard questions. They might do well to introduce the format to Lateline and the 7.30 Report as well.