Rudd's *Beep*ing Attitude Problem
July 14th 2008 04:57
For any of us who have felt that have worked in high pressure situations, it’s a familiar story.
The paperwork is stacking up. There aren’t enough hours in the day. There are appointment to make and appointment that need to be bumped. There are dozens of people knocking on the door, or ringing on the phone, or shooting off emails and every single one of them needs something from you. Everyone has a point at which decorum goes out the window, when we do or say things that we wouldnt under less intense circumstances. And there is no more high pressure position than being the leader of a nation. So why is it a surprise to find out that K-Rudd is fond of using the F-bomb every now and then? The answer: it’s not.
In his new book ‘Howard’s End’ Peter van Onselen makes the claim that Kevin Rudd is a bad-tempered control freak with a proclivity for swearing that was known behind closed doors for his “vile temper”. The fact that this is news making material is further testament to the fact that Rudd is one of the best media managers of our time. Politicians, especially Australian politicians, have been known in years gone by as some of the crudest human beings imagineable. Remember Bob Hawke? Champion beer drinker. Literally, the guy held a world record. How about Paul Keating? One of the best orrators in Australian politics. But most of his rhetorical technique derived from insulting his opponents as efficiently as possible. Much like someone who attempted to take up his mantle years later: Mark Latham, known for calling the Prime Minister an “ass-licker” and referring to the Liberal Party as a “conga line of suckholes”. Not exactly grandiose Shakespearian language but that’s not the point. The point is that it’s effective. After all, I’m still talking about it right now aren’t I?
So, this is the big news of the week: Ruddy likes to throw the F word around like he’s Gordon Ramsay. Why is it news? I’ll give you a hint. It’s not because of the language, or the temper, or any of the revelations themselves. Still don’t have it? This is news because up until now Rudd has done so well at creating a media persona for himself. We see him coming out of church and doing sing-a-long with the kids. Even the way his hair is parted and his capped-tooth smile is carefully calculated to give off a “Gee, shucks” vibe as though he stepped straight off the set of ‘Leave it to Beaver’. It’s not so much that we don’t believe that any normal human being would swear under the same pressures, it’s that we’ve been led to believe that Kevin Rudd was the exception.
Van Onselen points out in his forthcoming book that there are two Kevin Rudd’s: the one the public see’s and the real one. Look back at media from the late 1980’s and early 1990’s, when Kevin Rudd worked under Wayne Goss in the Queensland State Government. Media reports and stories from people who knew him at the time referred to him as a hard-task master that was ruthless in carrying out his duties. Many people who knew him from this time have said they were shocked when they saw what he had become on his rise in Federal Parliament: that Rudd didn’t gel with the one they had known.
What have we learned from this? Kevin Rudd gets mad and swears. Alot.
And he doesn’t even have to worry about how he’s going to put food on the table or pay for petrol that is rising by the day. Then he would be REALLY mad.
The paperwork is stacking up. There aren’t enough hours in the day. There are appointment to make and appointment that need to be bumped. There are dozens of people knocking on the door, or ringing on the phone, or shooting off emails and every single one of them needs something from you. Everyone has a point at which decorum goes out the window, when we do or say things that we wouldnt under less intense circumstances. And there is no more high pressure position than being the leader of a nation. So why is it a surprise to find out that K-Rudd is fond of using the F-bomb every now and then? The answer: it’s not.
In his new book ‘Howard’s End’ Peter van Onselen makes the claim that Kevin Rudd is a bad-tempered control freak with a proclivity for swearing that was known behind closed doors for his “vile temper”. The fact that this is news making material is further testament to the fact that Rudd is one of the best media managers of our time. Politicians, especially Australian politicians, have been known in years gone by as some of the crudest human beings imagineable. Remember Bob Hawke? Champion beer drinker. Literally, the guy held a world record. How about Paul Keating? One of the best orrators in Australian politics. But most of his rhetorical technique derived from insulting his opponents as efficiently as possible. Much like someone who attempted to take up his mantle years later: Mark Latham, known for calling the Prime Minister an “ass-licker” and referring to the Liberal Party as a “conga line of suckholes”. Not exactly grandiose Shakespearian language but that’s not the point. The point is that it’s effective. After all, I’m still talking about it right now aren’t I?
So, this is the big news of the week: Ruddy likes to throw the F word around like he’s Gordon Ramsay. Why is it news? I’ll give you a hint. It’s not because of the language, or the temper, or any of the revelations themselves. Still don’t have it? This is news because up until now Rudd has done so well at creating a media persona for himself. We see him coming out of church and doing sing-a-long with the kids. Even the way his hair is parted and his capped-tooth smile is carefully calculated to give off a “Gee, shucks” vibe as though he stepped straight off the set of ‘Leave it to Beaver’. It’s not so much that we don’t believe that any normal human being would swear under the same pressures, it’s that we’ve been led to believe that Kevin Rudd was the exception.
Van Onselen points out in his forthcoming book that there are two Kevin Rudd’s: the one the public see’s and the real one. Look back at media from the late 1980’s and early 1990’s, when Kevin Rudd worked under Wayne Goss in the Queensland State Government. Media reports and stories from people who knew him at the time referred to him as a hard-task master that was ruthless in carrying out his duties. Many people who knew him from this time have said they were shocked when they saw what he had become on his rise in Federal Parliament: that Rudd didn’t gel with the one they had known.
What have we learned from this? Kevin Rudd gets mad and swears. Alot.
And he doesn’t even have to worry about how he’s going to put food on the table or pay for petrol that is rising by the day. Then he would be REALLY mad.
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