Hawkie called everyone mate

Well, that explains why he never returned my calls!

I once found myself momentarily in Paul Keating’s immediate orbit, during the time of Hewson. I had one shot, I asked him what his first car was.

For a nanosecond he was ever so slightly thrown, enough for me to slip him my spirex notebook open at a blank page, no pen. I suggested a marque that was plausible for a young manager of a rock and roll band of his time, and he said “Yes it was”

Cufflinks twinkled in the sun, exquisite Zegna lining flashed briefly as he reached for the Mont Blanc in the inner breast pocket, and he said:

“What’s your name?” in a tone I can only describe as good-natured contempt, and I told him, and he said “You’d be a celt, wouldn’t ya”, ( pronounced with a hard c, and a pronounced t) and I said “Has Skippy got ticks?” and he laughed, and it was good.

Reminds me: must go and dig out said spirex.

He seems to have been living with fear throughout his life, as his constantly trembling, saliva-soaked bottom lip attests. Whenever someone challenges him, or puts inconvenient facts in his face, his eyes get big behind the bifocals and you really sense that he might burst into tears at any moment if we all don’t just let him have his way.

A sad little man who was never suited to the cameras, and certainly has no future in the online video industry!

His eyes were fearful and darting, but his body language was desperately trying to convey his sense of self-importance. It was sad, in a deeply disconcerting kind of way.

That’s a brilliant description of what he looks like all the time.

But just as the YouTube comments become something out of Howard’s control, I think this Yahoo Answers thing has the potential to get away from him as well. All of the questions he has been asked are available to see – if he chooses simple ones and ignores the insightful questions, he can be called up on it by the media and the bloggers.

In the run-up to the election it’ll be interesting to see whether Howard manages to get his head around the fact that by taking his message online, he is going into an environment where others have an equal voice but with greater numbers to shout down his weasel words.