Generally, on reflection, I think I was being a bit obtuse in my post. I wasn’t really trying to sing the praises of Howard and condemn Rudd, but rather I was trying to point out that by taking the middle so substantially Rudd has forced Howard to play more to the left than what is his norm. I also was trying to say that I would like to see Rudd come out with a few “big picture” policies in the next few weeks.

Crap, see, I could have written that in two sentences.
*verbose mode off*

No, unless he’s willing to legislate the preamble BEFORE writing the writs on Wednesday, then I’d trust him as far as I can throw him (but even then, would you trust him to keep it unchanged?).

And I’m sorry Mick:

What’s more, if Howard does sabotage this he will be damned by many. He has, to an extent, now staked his reputation to this course of action.

Why? What has he got to loose? He’s already announced his departure. Howard has staked his reputation on being completely ANTI reconciliation and has a history of saying one thing and doing the other (e.g. no GST) – anything for political expediency.

No, if we want real progress on reconciliation – I think we know where to turn…

He has to play the game he’s playing now to win, but once he has won it will be a different story, and a story that I believe will be good for Australia.

His past Public Service form shows that he’s a good manager and diplomatic negotiator, and this will be a big step towards tidying up Health, Communications and Industrial Relations, etc.

He’s shown, just by taking the stance he has, that he’s intelligent, so he’ll know he has to work on fairer Tax, climate change and the aged if he wants to stay in power.

And remembering that it was Labour that brought in such great reforms as Medicare, floating the dollar, compulsory Superannuation, etc, we have to add to the above that it would not be a Labour Government if there was not some major reform in the wind.

Rudd is to be commended for not being wedged or sidetracked, his first job is to get rid of Howard, and he’s well on track with that chore.

Jack

I recall all those years ago when Howard was asked about his vision for Australia (the now famous ‘relaxed and comfortable’ quote) – he seemed genuinely surprised by the question. The game was obviously to win the election and what would happen after that had not been given a lot of thought. KRudd seems to be ‘Me Too’-ing in that department as well.

Call me a cynic, but the sky will still be blue if/when Labor win the election.

Bliss was it in that dawn to be alive,
But to be young was very heaven!–Oh! times,
In which the meagre, stale, forbidding ways
Of custom, law, and statute, took at once
The attraction of a country in romance!

William Wordsworth

People haven’t given sufficient attention to the implications of a Liberal defeat in this election. They will not be in government anywhere. At federal level a bunch of exhausted old hacks will squabble over the paltry perks of opposition while at state level they are uniformly a joke. Not being in government anywhere they’ll have no platform to voice an alternative position on anything. No control of question time, no dominance of parliamentary committees, nobody to come out of COAG meetings and criticise the outcomes – they will be the invisible party, constantly telephoning media outlets begging for the chance to do a two minute interview on a story. Any story.

Rudd understands this (so do a few of the Libs, thus their anything-goes panic and crazy talk like Downer switching to state parliament). They can see Labor dominating politics in Australia for a generation, with Rudd as the smiling chief executive. All he has to do for it to happen is win one election. He’s not about to do anything that upsets anybody.

Once in power of course he’ll pretty much continue with the policies of the last 11 years. After all it was only Howard trying to get reformist that rocked the Coalition boat and Rudd’s too smart to make the same mistake.

We can hopefully look forward with gloomy satisfaction to the spectacle of Howard’s mob and the man himself being humiliated for their years of slimy deception and petty vindictiveness … but that’s it. That’s the sum total of the joy a change of government will bring for anyone who thinks our nation should make some fundamental changes in direction.

Lynda Hopgood -”I hope that once he is Prime Minister we will see a Kevin Rudd who is not afraid to strongly articulate ALP core beliefs and to take on a potentially hostile Senate in order to get legislation.”

Rudd is already strongly articulating his core beliefs about what the ALP should stand for.
How or rather if he maintains control after the election for example his overriding of caucus decisions about ministerial appointments will give us a good pointer as to whether core values re-emerge or are subserviant to the
personal dictates a new labor government/leader.