A number of people who saw or heard Kevin Rudd’s speech to Australian troops in Afghanistan spotted that the Prime Minister’s normally careful phraseology lapsed into dropped Gs, gunnas and other rather relaxed forms of expression while he talked to our boys.
Steve Leibman compared it to Rudd’s UN speech and asked “will the real Kevin Rudd stand up?”
Well, the answer is, both are the real Rudd — or at least, both are equally real. Rudd’s hardly the first politician to speak differently depending on the circumstances. Most, rightly, adjust their delivery style and vocabulary (assuming they have a vocabulary to start with) to match their audiences. It’s called effective communication and, given the range of different roles politicians have to play, essential.
Rudd, however, does it more than most and it has been a trademark of his rise to power. He adopts a different persona depending on the circumstances, an approach he honed to perfection on Sunrise, where he played a sort of down-to-earth wonk and all-round good bloke, entirely belying his background as a diplomat and former chief of staff.
His distinctly D-demographic language to the soldiers was a slight variant on this, and indeed the only surprise was that he didn’t throw in a few f–ks and c–ts.
The “real” Kevin Rudd is entirely out of sight, hidden by whatever guise he is wearing at the time, and things will probably remain that way for the rest of his political life.
In this way, he’s vastly different to most of his recent predecessors, whom we all felt we knew reasonably well. The only comparison is probably Malcolm Fraser, who didn’t bother to adopt different guises but merely hid everything under that stony Easter Island face.
Cathy, why don’t you tell us what you really think? Just kidding, couldn’t agree more.
Who cares? Anything is preferable to his vile predecessor’s carefully crafted pretence of appealing to the “battlers,” while trying to deliver them helpless to the elite he faithfully represented.
James, at 23 we’ll forgive you your lack of worldly experience, but us old farts who remember life before Howard understand Bernard’s point about leadership style. Howard, Keating and Hawke had distinctly consistent personalities which came through in each public appearance they made. Rudd is all over the joint – clearly following committee-generated advice to suit each occasion. Again, this won’t make much sense to a 23 year old, but I’d go so far as to say that Rudd is more Bob Carr that Bob Carr. Not that there’s anything wrong with that, as a sitcom you’re too young to remember once noted.
Theres something slightly patronizing about the way KevinPM went all boganic to the troops. All he had to do was appear more relaxed but speak pretty much in his own voice; the one that we all know. Nevertheless he should have gone all the way & said a few f–ks & c–ts coz thats what many of us wanna say to him after his lame attempt at creating effective emission trading targets. Boo hiss!
“He adopts a different persona depending on the circumstances…”
We all do….. it’s normal…you do need to be a pollie.
Rudd’s manipulation of the media, however, is I believe excessive, cynical and dishonest.
However he could however hardly get away with it without the media’s cooperation.
The ‘4th estate’ is lamentably complicit and poor in this country. This was evidenced recently by the treatment of Rudd’s lamentably poor indiscretion with the ‘leaking’, dishonestly and with conspicuous self-aggrandisement of a version of the supposed contents a telephone call between himself and Bush.
But Australian journalistic standards seem lustrously independent compared to that demonstrated during the recent election in the US.