Kevin Rudd is my local member. He ought to drop in for coffee with me sometime – the advice would be a lot better than he’s getting at the moment. Ian Campbell having a meeting with a number of people, including Brian Burke, isn’t a “gottcha” opportunity for Labor, it’s a trap. Rudd shouldn’t have […]

Rudd’s fall to earth couldn’t have been more sudden than if he’d lost his broom while over-reaching for the snitch in the Quidditch stadium. And rather than Gryffindore he’s looking at worst Slytherin, and at best Huff and Puff. If he’d met Brian Burke for a meal once, it could be dismissed as just circumstance. […]

The preselection of Maxine McKew by Labor for Bennelong could be just what the PM ordered. The biggest risk to Howard this election was a protest vote. It was probably the only way that Beazley was going to win. One also suspects that the size of the vote for Rudd is also not so much […]

There is a simple reason why John Howard is sending extra troops to Iraq and Tony Blair is withdrawing them. There are votes for Howard on Iraq, but none for Blair. Blair’s constituency is by-and-large anti-war. While there are some left-of-centre hawks, like Nick Cohen, they are significantly outnumbered by the peacenicks. Blair’s backing of […]

Vladimir Putin steps onto German soil and almost immediately throws the gauntlet down to the US, raising the spectre of another Cold War and what is the Australian commentariat and Opposition obsessed with? John Howard’s comments about a junior senator’s bid for the White House and his policies on another international issue – Iraq. Howard […]

Friday’s breakfast meeting between Rudd and the Labor State Premiers suggests Howard may have another potent weapon to shift voters away from Rudd. Labor is in power in every state in Australia, and with the possible exception of South Australia, is almost uniformly seen as incompetent and corrupt. The only reason that it holds power […]

Posted for William York with particular apologies to Andrew Barton “Banjo” Paterson I HAD written him a letter which I had, for want of better Knowledge, sent to where I met him on the Murray, years ago, He was boating when I knew him, so I sent the letter to him, Just on spec, addressed […]

You wouldn’t think it from yesterday’s question time, but global warming could be a bigger political problem for Rudd than Howard. Howard is currently being criticised for appearing to suggest that the link between CO2 and climate is still unproven. That may yet be the case, but it is an untenable position for the leader […]

The “Coalition deal” accounced yesterday whereby Liberal Parliamentary Leader Bruce Flegg undertakes not to lead the Coalition, even if his party has more seats than the National Party, destroys the Coalition’s chances of winning the next state election. At a time when Beattie government mismanagement is obvious and everywhere, the Liberal Party is asking Queenslanders […]

Kevin Rudd’s charm offensive is designed to fill-out the detail of Kevin before John Howard does it for him. 90 second ads are part of this. Because they are long they say to us that they are deep, not shallow. This isn’t a glib pitch for Rudd, this is information. And from these ads we […]