The first is the lamentable habit Rudd has retained of retail politics Howard style. So we get grabs on the tv news every night of what Rudd thinks about x y and z – many of which have zip to do with the job of being PM. Let’s not forget the excuse for bringing the Beazer down – mixing Rove McManus and Karl Rove up. Perhaps the twenty something whiz kids Inside Kevin08 have a better grasp of pop culture, but would you really trust KRudd to comment on the political pop culture story of the week – Paris Hilton? Maybe the dude got where he is today in part because he was on breakfast telly and FM radio all the time, but isn’t there some truth to what Keating says about not just the dignity of the office but also trivialising the Prime Ministerial voice? When the Orstrayan public becomes less enamoured of Kevvy than we are at the moment, could it be that we’ll be as uninterested in what he has to say about economic policy as what he thinks of the last cricket result or all those many many many artistic and intertube-ish threats to teh kiddies? (Which probably – incidentally – needlessly alienates part of his support base without really gaining him much…)

Secondly, there’s a very sensible piece by Bernard Keane in today’s Crikey on the narrative thing. It repays reading in full but there’s one bit I wanted to highlight.

Kevin Rudd and Wayne Swan have a narrative. They’re addressing supply-side constraints in areas like skills and infrastructure. They’re reviewing the taxation and transfer systems. They want to use a market-based approach to addressing climate change. But they haven’t consistently and pithily explained it in a few memorable turns of phrase — the sort that Keating can apparently produce in his sleep.

And they don’t have a hero. Wayne Swan is competent, but he’s not a compelling figure. This is very much the Rudd Government. The only figures to emerge from the shadow of the Prime Minister have been Julia Gillard and Penny Wong. That’s why the Government’s narrative hasn’t taken hold.

The Government’s commitment to proper policy development processes — including consultation — hasn’t helped. After a decade-plus of the Howard Government’s top-down decision-making, we’re not used to a Government that may actually be interested in developing good policy with input from anyone with a view. As a consequence, debates are kicked off without being shaped by the Government’s agenda. This week’s tax discussion paper is a good example. Wayne Swan was content to see the paper issued and let the debate proceed of its own accord. This is a very healthy thing. Yet it yielded stories in The Australian about “ticking time bombs” and “damp squibs.”

If you don’t provide a narrative, the media will do it for you.

The Government needs a clearer, more coherent narrative. And it needs a hero, to personalise that narrative. Julia Gillard has the gift of reducing issues to their basics. She dominates Parliament. She is respected by opinion-makers and the public. She needs to become the reforming hero of the Rudd Government, and shape its story.

Amen to that. It’s not just because she’s a powerful woman that the right hate her so much (though it is also that).

Edit: the original video we embedded was on YouTube, which has been pulled because it violates the copyright of Funny Or Die. Luckily, they have an embedding facility as well.

Update: [by Mark] Andrew Bartlett wishes he could give Paris Hilton his second preference.