24 June 2010

Kevin Rudd Replaced as Aussie PM: Aloof, "Dictatorial". . . and with Climate-Change Egg on His Face

Parallels with Obama's Flaws and Errors Abound...

Kevin Rudd -a man Barack Obama once laughingly referred to as "-intelligent and humble, like me!-" was abruptly sacked by his own party yesterday amid sliding poll numbers and the humiliation of being forced to delay until 2013 the climate-change program that got him elected. 
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Rudd -who also like the moonbat messiah had zero executive experience/came from academia- likewise was elected in a perfect-storm of political discontent, while attacking his conservative predecessor John Howard as some warmongering, planet-trashing 
Neanderthal
.
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However, 
once the harsh glare of reality was applied to his actual rule, that popularity took a devastating hit. PM Kevin Rudd initially enjoyed stratospheric approval numbers... only to crash hard when Australians both in-and-outside government soured on the platform, ineffectual leadership, and high-handed management style.

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Fact is Kevin Rudd has gone in just six months from second-highest approval rating in the 40-year history the Nielsen poll... to the first Labour PM to be shown door prior to the completion of his first term... a prompt, comprehensive a political collapse- and humiliating.
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His replacement -Julia Gillard- is a Labour stalwart, and is expected to implement few policy changes. Yet Gillard does enjoy the support of  the conservative wing of her party, as this coup was engineered by Australia's version of the Blue Dogs (Blue 'Roos...?)-- seems the more sensible elements down there had enough of being bullied and treated like children.
Reportedly the decisive issue was intra-party discontentment with Rudd's dictatorial style, power grabs, and centralization of decision-making... after being told what-to-do for the last couple years, a majority decided they'd be a lot better off working with someone else. 
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Hillary, you paying attention here?
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The The Sydney Morning Herald's Political Editor Peter Hartcher comments on just where Kevin Rudd went wrong... a lot of this should sound familiar to contemporary American political observers:
"...a combination of Rudd's decisions, disenchantment with the electorate... something seemed to go snap... "

"that's the lesson the whole party has learned, from Rudd's experience, is that a wider, more consultative form of government is essential."

"... what sealed-the-deal was that he'd bred a lot of resentment within his own party, with his high-handed way of dealing with ministers, his supporters, and a highly-centralized form of government..."
Aussie blogger Down Under on the Right Side offers a concise sum-up Rudd's departure -here-