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Last updated on August 3rd, 2017 at 12:35 pm
Kevin Rudd forgets a candidate’s name:
Kevin Rudd is in Launceston where he got the name of his candidate wrong, calling her Jodie Kingston rather than Jodie Campbell in an interview with the Across Australia program.
“I have had a bit of time to have a wander around with Jodie Kingston, our candidate,” he said.
Must’ve been thinking about Margo. Expect coverage equal to that which recently followed John Howard’s similar memory lapse, including:
• A piece on the ABC’s PM program;
• Another piece on ABC’s Lateline;
• Several hundred words from AAP (plus an Age audio link);
• The Age’s Michelle Grattan weighing in on Rudd’s “extraordinarily careless and costly slip” (plus an Age video link);
• A further slab of analysis from AAP (plus a Sydney Morning Herald audio link);
• Deep thoughts on the incident from the Sydney Morning Herald’s
chief political correspondent (plus a Sydney Morning Herald video link);
• And yet more from the Albury Border Mail, the Hobart Mercury, and the Australian.
In other crucial news, John Howard yesterday tripped over then got up.
Reminds me of when the PM was bundled out of that smouldering RAAF transport by his SAS bodyguards. The news angle concocted by the journalistic propagandariat made no reference to the risks being taken by a physically dynamic and stout-hearted Prime Minister visiting two war zones in as many days. Instead it highlighted the supposedly negative symbolism of Howard on the run.
Now much is being made of the fact that the Costellos aren’t invited to dine with the Howards. Little is made of the fact, reported only for colour in passing, that the Mandarin-fluent Kevin Rudd apparently doesn’t have a China Plate in the whole Canberra shooting match.
I have a feeling that Rudd could probably hunt polar bears with a machine gun from a snowmobile without generating too much scrutiny in the press – during an election year, at any rate. Whereas I’m surprised that someone isn’t using the picture of Howard after his stumble (photo behind first link) to portray him as a secret Muslim at his noon prayers.
- Posted by Mystery Meat on 2007 07 24 at 11:25 AM • permalink
Paco, lefties would actually be miffed by news of Howard’s hitherto secret Muslim identity. That, to them – after all – would be a major positive. Had Howard been photographed post-stumble and positioned prie dieu while visiting FuehrerBushColonoscopiBurton at the White House, however, the press would draw all manner of profoundly symbolic conclusions. Consider an historical precedent. Did commentators note that Prime Minister Harold Holt – a committed ally of the US in Vietnam – was merely checking his shoelaces? Oh no.
#5: Paco, lefties would actually be miffed by news of Howard’s hitherto secret Muslim identity. That, to them – after all – would be a major positive.
Oh, quite right, C.L. I meant that unmasking John Howard as a secret Muslim would simply give them (in their own minds) a basis for charging “hypocrisy!” But your’re correct, of course; this would undoubtedly take some of the wind out of their sails.
It sounds as if the picture of Prime Minister Holt inspecting his shoelaces must have been treated in the press as an obeisance to President Johnson. Is that the case?
Lyndon Johnson! What a field day the starboard side of the blogosphere would have had with that fellow, what with all the hastily buried scandals. When Old Paco worked as an investigator for the Treasury, some of his Secret Service friends told him that when Johnson attended gatherings or parties or fund-raisers on yachts, he thought nothing at all of urinating over the side. And some of his comments on racial relations were not quite the same as those that he (or his speechwriters) prepared for public consumption.
So Kevni practically holds the keys to the Lodge. Will the electorate give him the Senate as well? If not then the next three years may be very interesting. I don’t expect a Dismissal Redux as no Governor General would have the nerve again but blocking legislation should keep them from the worst excesses.
Each day brings new poll results on John Howard yet nobody seems interested in how people intend to vote for Senate. If Labor doesn’t get to control Senate then whoever holds the balance of power there will be the most powerful person in Parliament and an instant media superstar.
It sounds as if the picture of Prime Minister Holt inspecting his shoelaces must have been treated in the press as an obeisance to President Johnson. Is that the case?
Indeed, Paco. It’s quite a renowned picture here. Yes, Johnson was quite crooked and his vulgarity legendary. But after enjoying every page of Dallek’s two-volume biography of the man, I couldn’t help but be awe-struck by his work ethic and his political smarts. I also think it’s sad that leaders nowadays are such automatons and mannequins in comparison. Can you imagine John Edwards trying to withstand the “Johnson treatment”. All that would remain of Edwards would be his expensively maintained coiffure. Maybe.
#8: Actually, I think Johnson probably would have worn Edwards’ “expensively maintained coiffure” from one of his belt loops.
I can admire the skills you have mentioned in Johnson, but I naturally deplore his use of them (for the most part). And I agree that he compares favorably with the current crop of fifth-raters who are swarming around the lamplight of the presidency. It is a bit of a stretch, and an obviously imperfect analogy, but I think that, of the Democratic candidates, Hillary probably most resembles Johnson, primarily in her “will to power”.
A portent of things to come from kevni, today he forgets a candidates name, if (god forbid) he wins the election you watch him forget all the promises he has made.
Posted by surfmaster on 2007 07 24 at 04:32 PM • permalink
Must’ve been thinking about Margo
Speaking of which, what is the former Web Diarist up to these days?
Posted by Bruce Rheinstein on 2007 07 24 at 04:40 PM • permalink
- #11 SM, I think you need to keep in mind that the only things that kevni has actually promised are:
roll back IR legislation to the early seventies;
care a lot about food and house price (not do anything, mind you)
try to be like John Howard.Surely that can’t be hard? Not very useful, true. But it sounds good.
- #10 -you should be LOL
A little O/TBoth papers of record, the smh and age, have a front pager this morning dripping with sentiment, about the good doctor haneef, viciously locked up for years without trial by the evil HoWARdSSKKK and his Nazi government. Seems his coz, visiting, brought some happy snaps of the new baby, a little girl, which made “tears well up in his eyes”Surprise surprise….. mussie, girl baby , tears.
sbs news showed Rudd’s slip, and then Howard’s trip, without much in the way of commentary. I think Howard is extremely lucky his trip fell on the same day as Rudd’s slip, or he’d be prominently featured with the usual innuendo.
btw there has been polling on the senate and it showed labor picking up coalition seats, greens picking up democrat seats (and democrats wiped off the political map) and family first fighting pauline in qld for the final seat. looks like back to a hung (upper)parliament where FF have the balance of power.
The latest newspoll has coalition finally up to 40 points for FPP, which is important, and labor down to 47. So once people realise they could vote little kevin in, closer to the election, it will get very interesting indeed. There needs to be a 3-4 point swing still in primary vote or it’s lost. Not unheard of, but getting very close now, so harder to achieve.
- Michelle Grattan covers for Rudd again on ABC AM:
Rudd ‘nearly, but not quite’ ruled out change on the Tasmanian forests, but the effect of it for the electorate was to rule out change’.
If she’d been talking about Howard all the bad words would have been out – ‘spin’, ‘shifty’ ‘clever’, but of course this was Teflon Kevni, on the ABC.This morning the Vic Minister for water kept saying that they won’t agree with the government because they wanted ‘certainty and stability for our farmers’ an obviously parochial old line any state could use too.
Did Caroline Doogue call him out on this after the second time he said it? Of course not. She thanked him for his ‘new’ insights!
Don’t forget this excellent website.
Posted by Margos Maid on 2007 07 24 at 07:19 PM • permalink
#12 Margo is in excellent form, and has been posting at this site recently.
Posted by Margos Maid on 2007 07 24 at 07:23 PM • permalink
Is the ABC big enough for two Doogues? Especially considering the size of Geraldine’s ego.
Posted by SwinishCapitalist on 2007 07 24 at 07:26 PM • permalink
Let’s hope that young Caroline is more adaptable than Geraldine. You can’t teach an old Doogue new tricks.
Posted by Margos Maid on 2007 07 24 at 07:30 PM • permalink
#15, I’d be very interested in knowing just how the Haneef business has become, in the eyes of much of the media, all John HoWARd’s fault. After all, he was originally detained at the request of the UK authorities, although they now seem not to want anything to do with him.
Also, an investigation into who has been providing the media with the numerous “leaks” – besides Haneef’s lawyer – would, I am sure, come up with some very interesting names. Linking the good doctor with David Hicks also didn’t come out of nowhere.
The Australian media’s
activitiesinvestigative journalism leaves a lot to be desired and, while I don’t have much faith in the AFP ever since they broke into the Indonesian official’s Sydney hotel room
– huge blunder – I don’t think they are stupid.Someone is stirring the possum, constantly feeding misinformation to the media and the public. I am genuinely curious about who is involved.
Don’t get me started about the ABC. So biased it is unbelievable.
Had the misfortune of watching the 7:30 report last night and ended up shouting at the tele – my poor flatmates – but that friggen Kerry O’Brien gets me steamed. Probably the one that got my goat was when he was going on about how the Federal government was getting heavy handed in its handling of the Murray/Darling water system, the NT child abuse crisis and a few others. He forgot to mention the common link between these issues – incompetent Labor state governments and it looks like we are going to have it all overseen by an incompetent Federal Labor government as well. Watch the money flow!
Report (TV. 7 8am.) “New migrants healthier and better educated than Australian Citizens”.
Does that mean that former migrants who were once non Australians and became Australian citizens are now dumber than the ones who are coming here to this country and are still called new migrants?
How do I become an Australian citizen?
I have migrated to Australia.
Used that a few days ago to enquire why, in an unrelated story, the ABC saw fit to trot out the Abu Ghraib pictures again on the news.
No reply for 4 days now.
Im sure it will be soon.
/I want to believe…..Posted by thefrollickingmole on 2007 07 24 at 08:52 PM • permalink
And yet more from the Albury Border Mail,
The Fairfax owned Border Mail today editorialised on the way the election campaign is being trivialised by media concentration on incidents such as Howard forgetting a name. It said more attention should be given to important things such as policies.
That was page 20. Back on page 1 was a TV grab of John Howard falling over and a pointer to another, larger picture, of John Howard falling over. The page 21 opinion piece by AAP’s Labor party PR person, Maria Hawthorne, saw the fall as an omen the government was about to fall too.
Left hand, have you even met the right hand?
Left hand, have you even met the right hand?
Only at the changeover… if you know what I mean.
Posted by SwinishCapitalist on 2007 07 24 at 09:23 PM • permalink
#27 Rod: I think it’ll either be Giuliani or maybe Thompson, if the latter decides to enter the race; however, I believe Fred is playing it coy a little too long.
I have said it before, and I’ll say it again: Hillary Clinton will never be President of the United States. If she does, I’ll have to set up a Radio Free Paco somewhere back in the hills.
#9 Interesting! I think the view of Johnson outside of the United States is of a manly American archetype, staunchly anti-communist, no frills, no nonsense. Less well known is LBJ’s long and eventually frustrated ambition to become FDR II – imperiously munificent with taxpayers’ money and fanatical about the efficacy of a state-financed Great Society. For self-enriching venality, Johnson made Dick Nixon look like Albert Schweitzer.
Paco, Thanks mate…. Tres* interesting, as we say down here. But are you telling me that if Hilary gets the Dem nomination she will not win the election? Big call, but one I agree with. I would also suggest that anyone -even Superman, with a middle name of Hussein, would have some difficulty winning.
Not much known about Thompson down our way,IMO, but he should show his hand ASAP. If he is waiting until just after the old warrior folds, that would if nothing else be tasteless.
And further to LBJ, he was the first US President to visit Oz, and of course we recall that Lady Bird passed away last week.
* pr. Traze
The Tele is being fair about it.
The wrong name came out during another of John Howard’s radio interviews today but this time it was the interviewer who got the Prime Minister’s name wrong – calling him Mr Ruddd instead…
Yesterday, Mr Howard tripped as he entered a Perth radio station. But Labor leader Kevin Rudd also stumbled, getting the name of a Tasmanian Labor candidate wrong during a radio interview.
The big issues…
I preferred politics when it was – What are they going to give me and how much are they going to steal.
Wouldn’t mind seeing Rudd fall into a nest of bullants covered in honey though.
Posted by Infidel Tiger on 2007 07 24 at 10:42 PM • permalink
#37 – It really ticks them off!
Posted by Infidel Tiger on 2007 07 24 at 10:52 PM • permalink
Of course new migrants are healthier and better educated!
For a start, they are younger. The young, on average, have fewer health problems than the old. So young migrants will be healthier than the average Australian. There is also a health check before a migrant visa is issued.
Also, migrants, as opposed to refugees, are admitted on the basis of skills, and therefore education.
Posted by pog-ma-thon on 2007 07 25 at 12:02 AM • permalink
#5. lefties would actually be miffed by news of Howard’s hitherto secret Muslim identity.
C.L, maybe that’s why there is a growing number of Muslims in the Bennelong electorate!
Posted by ozconservative on 2007 07 25 at 12:22 AM • permalink
8 and 9 Oddly enough, I am reading vol. 2 of that same bio, though am not as impressed as C.L. Dallek’s stance on Vietnam (he was clearly on the antiwar, or as LBJ rightly termed it the commie, side) renders his account of Johnson’s role a self-contradictory mishmash.
The damage done by Johnson’s Great Society welfare handouts and the mentality that went with them is still being rectified. But his political smarts- the way he followed all legislation through every step of its passage, and got more of his bills passed barely changed than any Pres in history—were astonishing. I had not thought of Hillary in relation to LBJ but agree with Paco on the resemblance.
Posted by arrowhead ripper on 2007 07 25 at 01:32 AM • permalink
2 questions for the ages:
1. How on earth has this manipulative little prefect become so popular?
2. Who is behind Kyle Sandilands popularity?Posted by Infidel Tiger on 2007 07 25 at 01:41 AM • permalink
You know the way Kevni is constantly licking his lips like a lizard when he’s talking?
I hadn’t noticed until my husband pointed it out and now I can’t stop noticing it. It used to be just the sound of his voice and the prissy mouth pursing that annoyed me about him … well, that and whatever he’s saying as well … but now there’s the lizard tongue thing on top of the rest. Yaaaah! Ack!
If he gets elected not only will everything go to crap but we’ll have old lizard-lip-licker in our faces on the nightly news for the foreseeable future. How awful!
- Just to underline the bankruptcy of the ABC coverage of things, this morning we were treated to a very small excerpt from George Bush’s statement about Al-Quaeda in Iraq. Did I say small excerpt? Try minute.
Thanks to Powerline you can read a lot more, including some fascinating information which you will never hear from our ABC. Shame.
Then there’s Michael Totten’s amazing embedded coverage from a “surged” area of Baghdad. You won’t read that anywhere but here either if our msm sources are true to form.
But his story hasnt been edited for accuracy yet!! Hes just spewing out raw facts on the ground, if you trust a source like that then whats the MSM for??
Posted by thefrollickingmole on 2007 07 25 at 08:25 AM • permalink
The media yet again brings the PM to his knees!
Whoop dee g-damn doo.