While I’m not really one for polling data, last week’s Newspoll showing Rudd ahead 73% to 9% (as preferred prime minister over Nelson) was pretty compelling. Polling – particularly phone polling 1000 odd citizens - is innately dodgy, but this time it’s reasonably safe to generalise that Rudd is flying and Dr Nelson is floundering. The Opposition Leader dismissed the numbers as evidence of an ‘extended honeymoon’ implying that voters were merely embracing the new face. Brendan should be so lucky.
Unfortunately for Nelson and his Liberal colleagues Prime Minister Rudd is turning out to be a better prospect that even his biggest supporters hoped for. Since coming to office he has issued a landmark apology to indigenous Australians, axed the unpopular Work Choices, ratified the Kyoto Protocol and is lobbying for a seat on the UN Security Council. In the few short months since parliament reconvened, Rudd has already filled in much of the pit of despair he inherited from his predecessor. This last fortnight has seen the PM climb even higher in my Presidential esteem, raising our international profile with a series of high profile meetings. He wants out of Iraq, deeper into Afghanistan, to free Tibet – and, hallelujah, to reopen the Republic debate (someone’s been reading my wish book again). Come week's end, he was doing material in Mandarin... the guy's in fire.
In light of all that Rudd has achieved in such a short time, it’s no wonder that Nelson is polling single digits and that the Opposition are languishing. Nelson is weak and downright abrasive at times. Speculation is rife about his ongoing leadership – not to mention the fate of former government double act Downer and Costello. The Libs, having been in power for so long, and led so decisively over that time, are all of a sudden lost in the woods. For Labors sake, and all of ours, let us hope that the Government continues to surge ahead, in the absence of a cohesive alternative government. There is still much to achieve – this honeymoon has a way to go yet.
If I thought that I’d gotten rusty after my fall from the posting horse recently, today’s title put that concern to rest. Presidential Race, now that’s a solid pun if ever there was one. Still got it… but pressing on. I don’t where you were on March 18th but you probably didn’t get the chance to watch friend of the Administration Barack Obama’s historic race speech – subsequently dubbed ‘A More Perfect Union’. Sure you might have seen a few sound bites, but I can tell you that unless you saw the full 37 odd minutes (see below – already viewed some 4 million times) it wasn’t done justice. As many have commented since, the speech has the potential to be carved into history’s pages of Great Speeches alongside ‘I have a Dream’ (MLK Jr), ‘Ich bin ein Berliner’ (JFK) and We Shall Fight on the Beaches (Churchill)
Obama’s speech came in response to growing racial tensions and controversy hounding the Democratic Presidential campaign. Following Bill Clinton’s charged comments about Jesse Jackson’s failed 1984 candidacy, and Geraldine Ferraro’s definitively racist "If Obama was a white man, he would not be in this position”, came incendiary footage of Obama’s pastor Jeremiah Wright. Rev Wright was YouTube’d screaming “Goddam America”, “for killing innocents” and stating that 9/11 was “America's chickens… coming home to roost." Fox News had a field day and some pundits wondered if this was the Obama killing gaffe that they’d all been waiting for.
To make a long story slightly shorter, Obama chose a bold route to settle some of the media fueled innuendo: meeting it head on. In his speech he argued for a frank public debate of race – in contrast to the current status quo – which sees black anger simmering from generations of oppression, and corresponding white discontent over perceived injustices around Affirmative Action. He then decided to stand by his pastor (while condemning his inflammatory words), who he said was a good man, prone to the passion and hyperbole stereotypical of black church leader of generations past.
When the dust settled, many on the right had dismissed Obama’s speech as empty (but pretty) rhetoric – preferring to pretend that the issue of race in America was settled by Lincoln and the Civil War. He was also attacked from the left, by those claiming that he had not done enough to quiet fears about his links to such an extremist preacher. Both were wrong and both missed the point. Obama grandly invested 37 minutes of his life trying to reopen an old wound – this time hoping to get it to heal properly at the risk of his locomotive career. He behaved like a great leader should: he was honest, (not patronizing) and inspirational. Whether he goes on to win the Democratic nomination, and then the White House or not – Obama has shown a depth of character that makes his peers look distinctly two-dimensional.
While I’m not really one for polling data, last week’s Newspoll showing Rudd ahead 73% to 9% (as preferred prime minister over Nelson) was pretty compelling. Polling – particularly phone polling 1000 odd citizens - is innately dodgy, but this time it’s reasonably safe to generalise that Rudd is flying and Dr Nelson is floundering. The Opposition Leader dismissed the numbers as evidence of an ‘extended honeymoon’ implying that voters were merely embracing the new face. Brendan should be so lucky. 
