ninme

(someone tell Skippy to stand down)

The Times – Asian Model<br/> Rudd will do best if he is wary of his own party

In replacing him with Kevin Rudd, Australia has opted not for a revolutionary shift in policy but for a softer and more rounded version of the status quo. There will be some in the Labor Party who do not share this assessment. If Mr Rudd listens to that faction, then he will doom himself and his fledgeling Goverment. He needs to be an antipodean version of Tony Blair, smoothing off the rough edges of a long-serving predecessor, not reversing political course entirely.

In domestic policy, therefore, he should largely stick with what he has inherited.

Yeah!

In international affairs, Mr Rudd should take another look at his election promises. The pledge to make a “phased withdrawal” of Australian troops from Iraq was made when the situation there was not anything like as encouraging as to-day. To cut and run would be profoundly irrational and deeply divisive in terms of Australia’s relations with the United States, and would rightly be regarded with contempt by Iraqis.

Lookit that, looking at the move from an Australian point of view (rather than an American one), taking into account the Iraqi point of view (rather than an American one), and reflecting only lastly on its effect on the American point of view (which doesn’t really matter, does it?). Astonishing bit of journalism, that.

This made me laugh:

He understands that Australia is an Asian nation and not a large part of Europe mysteriously mislocated in the Southern Hemisphere. … If Mr Rudd is smart, he will realise that many in the Labor Party maintain only a semidetached relationship with the real world. He has a substantial personal mandate and should exploit it to advance his own agenda and not become merely the frontman for an unattractive party machine. The Asian model is the one which should appeal to him. It is also the only one that will keep him in power.

Followed immediately by this comment:

And exactly what is the “Asian model” that is to be inflicted on a largely European Christian values population ?<br/> Charles, Perth , Western Australia

Heheh.