Posted on 06/25/2010 6:18:26 PM PDT by naturalman1975
IT WAS late December, after Kevin Rudd had returned from the inglorious UN climate change conference in Copenhagen, when Labor's electoral strategy group decided on a two-part plan for the summer of 2010 and the Rudd government's first election.
The first part of the plan was that the Prime Minister, who was devastated by the failure of the talks to reach any meaningful consensus, was to take a break with the family and refresh himself. Mr Rudd agreed and he did take a break.
The second part of the plan was to start campaigning in late January and then, before parliament was due to resume sitting on February 2, call a double-dissolution election for March based on the Senate's rejection of the Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme in the first week of December.
All Mr Rudd needed to do was return from holidays and pull the trigger. He didn't.
Labor MPs were stunned when, instead, Mr Rudd's first public duty in mid-January was to launch a children's book he'd co-authored with Play School actor Rhys Muldoon.
.....
The opportunity for the Rudd Government to go the polls - while unambiguously in front and with Mr Rudd as Prime Minister - was lost. Since then, Rudd's support within the federal parliamentary Labor Party and with public plunged.
This episode, according to senior Labor figures, is the genesis of this week's unprecedented and spectacular removal of Mr Rudd as Labor leader - only the second sitting Labor prime minister to be removed by his own party and the only one to be cut down in the first term.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.com.au ...
The dumping of Rudd ... is this a good or bad thing?
Hard to say... he’s been replaced as Prime Minister by a hard-left former Communist, which is obviously bad, but the question now is will the Australian voters have time to discover just how left wing she is before the next election. Stories today suggest she is planning on going to the polls as quickly as possible to try and prevent that happening. And that could work - if she can get her government re-elected before anybody has time to fully assess her, we could be stuck with Labor under a hard left leader for three more years. If, instead, people get to know her, she may become one of the shortest term Prime Ministers ever.
Thank you for the education. ;-)
Remember, most people don't pay attention to politics. Until last week, about 20% of Australians couldn't even name the Deputy Prime Minister, let alone tell you anything about her.
I disagree, almost all of my friends know how left she is and her history at uni...and over half still support her. The women’s vote will go 60% for her and with the union backing... she is a lock in, I am afraid.
The problem is that many of women friends, even the most conservative, are very afraid of Tony Abbott.
Yes - and you and your friends probably take an interest in politics - you certainly do, or you wouldn’t be here.
Remember the typical Australian has about the political nous of Kath and Kim.
I also have to say I am quite baffled about what people find frightening about Tony Abbott. Except his speedos.
Labor has tried this before at state level remember - the women’s vote didn’t save Carmen Lawrence. The women’s vote didn’t save Joan Kirner.
I think Julia Gillard will win if she calls an election quickly, but only because people won’t have a chance to find out who she is, coupled with the normal honeymoon period.
Will she call a quick election? I would if I was her - the only thing I can see stopping her is she does not want to risk being thrown out after only a couple of months before she’s done anything.
Who says this isn’t what they planned in the beginning? Get Rudd in by winning moderate Labour and then pull the switch on the hard leftist?
Australia is one of the few debt-free countries. Electing a communist will destroy one of the freest economies on Earth.
She’s put in power by the right faction of the Labor Party. They’d certainly prefer not to have her as Prime Minister, and so certainly did not plan this. She was simply the only possible choice they had left when Rudd tanked.
Yep, that is pretty frightening! I think because he was the “attack dog†for the Liberals, plus his Catholic background (there is still a lot of anti-Catholic sentiment, as you probably know from the old Anglican founding of Oz), has contributed to his reputation. Also, a lot of people I know, often mention his anti-stem cell positions, even though I believe that is really a furby.
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