Right Pulse

A fairly damning assessment of Rudd’s 24 news spin cycle tactics from former adviser to the Small Business Minister, Craig Emerson:

…he is trapped by his opposition policy agenda established in times of irrational exuberance.

It began when Kevin07 challenged John Howard with anti-market measures that grabbed attention on the nightly news and won him favour on Seven’s Sunrise. This was sometimes referred to as “scab flicking” politics. An issue would be raised, hence the scab. It would bleed from the politicisation, hence the flicking. Then there would be a call for an inquiry to indicate some action. This was the Rudd office playbook 101 for opposition. The Rudd opposition mercilessly used the politics of scab flicking on areas as varied as demonising Australian Workplace Agreements, using the navy to protect whales, green power schemes and, most explicitly, the cost of living facing working families.

Yet the sentiment scab flicking stirred up and the market interventions it has created will increase unemployment.

It seems the ALP right is turning against Rudd, who apparently stopped attending factional meetings when he was in opposition. Michael Costa deals with one of the products of Rudd’s 24/7 Sunrise news spin cycle:

The failure of Grocery Choice will, for political purposes, no doubt be blamed on the major supermarket chains. The reality is that with or without the co-operation of these supermarket chains, this was a ham-fisted way to address retail competition.

Rudd does govern like those bunch in-bred clowns on Sunrise. Paul Keating has also taken a swipe at Rudd’s defence policy, putting on his typically Asian apologetic hat to accuse Rudd of basically being anti-China. That claim is a bit rich. If Rudd is anti-China, then I wonder what he would be as Keating styled China apologist.

One of the reasons Howard was so respected in Asia, apart from all the cheap loans he made to the region, was that he didn’t bow down to Asian leaders like Keating used to. Keating used to chase Asian leaders like a fanatical obsessed fan following their favourite Hollywood star around the world. After a while it just became weird and annoying. Rudd has not really found a coherent Asian policy yet, or at least one that everyone understands. Remember his Asian EU style policy statement? What ever happend to that? And he seems to be coming and going on China. Between Keating, Rudd and Howard, undoubtedly the most successful leader in Asia was Howard.