Rudd is only a figurehead for long needed change that the average Aussie is feeling and people want change no matter what. Ronald McDonald or the Hamburglar could be running for opposition at the moment and still show a lead over Howard’s government. If there was ever a time for implementing the right changes without fear this would surely be the time for Labor to take that step.
Alliance safe with Labor April 21, 2007
Following the catastrophe of Mark Latham, any Labor leader keen on getting elected would want to reassure the Australian people that he could manage the alliance. But Rudd's commitment to the alliance goes far beyond that.
One anecdote makes the point. Several years ago when Laurie Brereton was shadow foreign minister and Rudd an energetic backbencher, Malcolm Fraser was denouncing the US alliance and denouncing the Howard Government for being so committed to it. These crazy-left denunciations from Fraser have become ritual, but back then were novel.
Rudd intervened in the debate to point out that Labor had always been profoundly committed to the alliance and, in his view, the US had been overwhelmingly a force for good in the world.
