I think Rudd is making a huge mistake in trying to look as similar to Howard as possible so as not to spook Nervous Nelly voters that he's so different to Howard as to be dangerously radical and unelectable.
The down-side to that policy is if Rudd is seen as 'Howard Lite' voters may opt for the real thing - not the lookalike.
Beazley tried the same stunt when Pauline Hanson's race-hate stance induced disgruntled Liberal and Labor rednecks and bigots to switch to Pauline Hanson's Voodoo Economics stance in regards to migrants and refugees.
What followed was the saddest and most shameful episode in Australian politics - Howard and Beasley held a p*ssing contest to see who could come up with the harshest and nastiest kid-caging policies to one-up each other in clawing back race hate and redneck voters from One Nation - all the while both leaders tried to one-up each other in saying how much they despised Pauline Hanson so they could hang on to the Ethnic vote!
When voters were presented with a real mongerel (Howard) and a pretend mongerel (Beazley) they choose the real thing not the lookalike!
On the other hand, had Beazley chosen to follow his heart (not his lust for votes) and told voters that he would *never* support child abuse as government policy, his courage under redneck fire may have convinced even redneck voters that the Labor Party was 'fair dinkum' and Labor may have won.
With the average Aussie voter being able to smell a phoney through two metres of reinforced concrete, candidates (on both sides) have no option but to be who they really are!
THIS is what mattered most when Graham grew up in White Australia from March 1938:
This is Australia as it is today whether John Howard likes it or not:
