Rudd vs the US
FIRST there was the cool personal reception — now Kevin Rudd has been left out of the official White House photograph album.
Well Kevin, call a bloke an idiot and that’s what you get
The treatment received by Australia is very different to that received by former PM John Howard, whom Mr Bush dubbed his “man of steel”. But Mr Rudd denied any diplomatic hitches. “Those other matters were not canvassed by anybody,” he said while in the US.Of course the matters were not canvassed by anybody – the G20 leaders, Bush included, have better manners. Rudd can not possibly believe that his comments went unnoticed and he now has to deal with the fact that world leaders will now be viewing him with a jaundiced eye. The ALP are trying to spin the “What’s G20” item as something-nothing and have actually had some success in turning the debate back to the Libs. Both Malcom Turnbull and Julie Bishop are being pressured by the Australian and Laurie Oaks over Howard saying al-Qa’ida would prefer Obama to win. Two points here. The first is al-Qa’da is on record as saying they would prefer Obama to win, and secondly, the fact that Howard said this has absolutely no bearing on what Rudd said. Howard’s comments were about a hitherto nondescript US Senator whose status at the time was Presidential Nominee. Rudd’s statement was about the current US President, our major ally and was clearly defamatory. Rudd further exacerbated the diplomatic gaffe by ignoring it long enough for the impression to be created that Rudd was erudite and clearly more intelligent and worldly than the US President who didn’t even know who G20 were. As Rudd simply ignores questions in the house on the matter his ignorance will fade as the media follow the next big story; President Bush will retire and go back to Texas and Rudd will dine out for years on how he got away with calling the President of the US an idiot. Not here though; the incident will go into the overflowing basket of Rudd stuff-ups and enough will remember for it to matter later.
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Kev, Rudd is entirely correct in his description of the lame duck most unpopular president in history. Obama will be in the oval office soon and he likes Rudd, so everything will be sweet again.
You know that is not the issue Eddie. In the world of politics, and dare I say it, diplomacy, a PM simply does not blabber to the press about private conversations with the President and tell a deliberate lie to make the President look stupid and himself look smart.
It is not the man – it is the appointment!
Not only did he lie but he left the story to fester so all the left wingers could make smart dinner party conversations beginning with “did you hear, that stupid Bush doesn’t even know what G20 is” and “Isn’t Kevin so smart”
It is media coverage like this that has people fall for the ‘Bush is stupid” line
Kev, Howard was the king of liars. AWB is far more serious than this and it was swept under the carpet. Then we have the children overboard (that is why Bush and Howard loved each other, both stole elections with lies)
Hahaha.
Your statement implies it took more for Howard and Bush to win an election that they shouldn’t have, and I agree because the electoral boundaries and the systems in both countries do favour both the more left parties, and in addition there is a lot more institutionalised support for them as well.
The idea that they stole the election with lies is a bit sensational, for Howard it was more likely the Australian sloppiness; indifference and tall poppy syndrome, for Bush, he didn’t follow the numbers and went to Iraq anyway -feeling that he was doing the right thing.
Dear Kev
I back to annoy you again.
Happy with the comments about Howard and his lies. I suppose karma and the bullshit catches in the end. Very happy to see him lose his seat as well.
Contrary to what you say Rudd is a great beliver in the Aus/US alliance and he will not need to be as fawning as Howard was to Bush.
Keep up the contributions Eddie; I am a kindred spirit.