I've been reading up on Rudd on the net and my take on him is that he's basically a nice guy who made his pre-election promises in good faith, but after he was elected he realised that solving most of Australia's problems was beyond his knowhow, and now he's feeling embarrassed and red-faced. In other words, he talked the talk but can't walk the walk.
Interestingly he's always had a strong christian background, and that could be part of the problem. I'm guessing that he's the "Fatalistic" brand of christian, there are a lot of them about, basically they go through life putting themselves entirely in the hands of God and trusting in him completely to guide them.
As a result they forget how to think and don't lift a finger to help themselves, resulting in them fumbling and bumbling their way through life, trusting to God that they're making the right decisions.
I've met people like that, and the impression I have of them is that they're mindless disorganised empty-headed wishy-washy robots who get christianity a bad name, so I avoid them.
The fact is, God wants us to help ourselves, not blindly trust in him all the time-
"For God did not give us a spirit of timidity, but a spirit of power, of love and of selfdiscipline" (2 Tim 1:7)
POS you are getting only part of the story. He is one of the 'put on the act as a christian in front of the punters' type of bloke. I didn't put in the times he was caught out swearing at and abusing his female staff members, which has happened a number of times. Mark Latham is the man that Kevin Rudd took over from as Opposition leader after the 2004 election loss, and was therefore Kevin Rudds boss. Latham released a book recently called the "Latham Diaries". It give's a good idea of the man Rudd really is. Rudd is mentioned on no fewer than 40 occasions in his diaries and he never finds one good thing to say about him. Here are just a few quotes from his book.
Rudd’s Foreign Policy
Monday 24th March 2003, Page 217
“War in Iraq and Simon has got himself into a terrible tangle. The basic lesson: never listen to Rudd on foreign policy. If that guy is an expert then I’m Henry Kissinger.â€
Page 218
Today Rudd was even worse. At 9.15 am he played a role in drafting the troops resolution at Shadow Cabinet but at 5.00pm at the National Right Meeting after Robert Ray attacked the wording Rudd stood up and disowned it calling it hopeless. I’m still shaking my head in disbelief that it was the same person at both meetings. He’s an incredible piece of work.
Rudd on Trust
Saturday, 22nd November 2003, Page 243
All the snakes are sliding around in the grass feeding their poison to Seccombe (SMH Journalist): Rudd, Swan, Albanese, Tanner and Comb-over.
Page 249
It is amazing that the journalist couldn’t see through him. Two factors: they are lazy and dumb and Rudd is a fanatical media networker. He is addicted to it worse than Heroin.
Wednesday, 14 April 2004, Page 280
I’ve had a suspicion for some time now that Rudd has been feeding mat¬erial to Oakes. Decided to set him up, telling Kevvie about our focus groups on Iraq. No such research exists-Gartrell says he’s doing some quantita¬tive polling but not focus groups. Today, right on cue, Jabba has written in the Bulletin: ‘The Labor Party’s polling firm has been busily running focus groups to test the public mood following Latham’s ‘troops -out’ announce¬ment. The most significant finding, I understand, is overwhelming support for the alliance with the United States’.
Trapped him. Two weeks ago in New Zealand, I announced our inten¬tion to have a Minister for the Pacific Islands. That’s the job I’ll give Rudd if we win. Joel thinks I’m joking, but I’m deadly serious. Rudd is a terrible piece of work: addicted to the media and leaking. A junior minister in Government, at best.
Rudd’s Vanity
Saturday, 30th December 2003, Page 256
Kevvie wanted his title expanded to the more grandiose Shadow Minister for Foreign Affairs and International Security. No worries, but then he rang me last Sunday to say he objected to McClelland also having the word `Security’ in his title. At first I thought it was some kind of joke, but the crazy ******* was serious: he had a long and absurd argument about the alleged overlap between the two jobs. I suggested he talk to McClelland, hoping to never hear from him again.
By the end of the day, Rudd was threatening to go to the backbench, over a question of semantics. I told him I was willing to accept his resigna¬tion and he went away to think about it. The ideal contingency plan was McMullan to Foreign Affairs and then I could save face with Coxie in Finance. Rudd called at about 11 p.m. and backed down, allowing the announcement to go ahead the next day.
Friday 22nd October 2004, Page 364
Another slice of Caucus chaos: Kevin Rudd. On Wednesday, ‘ The Australian ‘ carried a front-page story saying that if Rudd didn’t became Shadow Treasurer he would go to the backbench. My thoughts went back to December last year and his tantrum over his title. He’s such a prima donna
Rudd came around to see me yesterday morning, lobbying to be Shadow Treasurer. He went into a long explanation of why he’s so wonderful. When he finished I put my cards on the table: that I regard him as disloyal and unreli-able, and he only holds his frontbench position because of his media profile and public standing among people who have never actually met him. I also told him that if the newspaper report was true, he should get ready for the backbench, as there was no way I could give him the Shadow Treasury.
He appeared surprised, protested his innocence and then broke down badly, sobbing over the recent death of his mother, just before polling day. I told him to leave work and go back to Brisbane to rest with his family. But he wouldn’t give up. Even though he was crying, he kept on lobbying to be Shadow Treasurer. It was becoming quite sad. Then he said words that I will never forget: ‘I swear on my mother’s grave that The Australian story is wrong, totally wrong, and that I’ve been loyal to you and will continue to be loyal to your leadership’.
I don’t mind people bull****ting to me in politics, but not like this. Last week he rang around Caucus to gauge the mood after our loss, and told Trish Crossin that my leadership was on notice: I had until the Budget Reply speech next May to prove myself. He’s always bagging me to journal-ists and that’s not going to change any time soon. I don’t trust him, no matter what he says
