Don't Care And Not Listening….

Opposition leader Kevin Rudd's drunken visit to a New York strip club seems to have done him no harm. According to this poll , 85 per cent of voters thought it showed he was "a normal bloke". Whether that means that the 85 per cent of us who go to strip clubs are normal and the 15 per cent of us who don't are not, I really couldn't say. More worrying for those who try to manage these things on behalf of politicians, apparently 51 per cent think that the current healthy financial surplus does not stem from good economic management, or even luck, but from setting taxes too high. This despite the fact that the surplus has increased as the tax take has been steadily cut over a number of years. A majority of Australian families now pay no net tax, once various benefits are taken into account. Whatever happened to "it's the economy, stupid" and the feel-good factor?

Stripping Away The Spin

It’s just what every squeaky clean aspiring prime minister needs as the country prepares for a general election. The press is full of the revelation that Labor leader Kevin Rudd paid a visit to a New York strip club some years ago and was asked to leave for “inappropriate behaviour”, ie touching the artistes. While a Labor MP with him denies anything like that happened, Rudd himself says he was too drunk to remember, which hardly helps.

Not a good look for someone who stresses his family and Christian values but many people feel this will play well with the average Aussie. Queensland Premier Peter Beatty said it showed he had “blood in his veins”, a remark you could probably hear repeated in various forms in pubs and around barbies from Brisbane to Perth.

Even feminists have defended him. Eva Cox, from the Women's Electoral Lobby, said: "Going on the piss for one night basically, and doing something dumb is not a cardinal sin -- it's obviously not part of what he does generally. You can't condemn somebody for getting on the piss, we would never have elected Bob Hawke in that case." (Bob Hawke being a champion toper who became the country’s most popular prime minister).