Quoted from pebble

Rudd would be a weak leader for Australia - he just goes with flow, no one really knows for sure what he believes in or what he stands for - anyway, my frog is gunna win the next election. Move over Rudderless and Johnny.

...and Howard who only responds to polls, popular opinion and the US administration is his own man?

At least Rudd has clearly stated what his views are, makes his points succinctly instead of Howard's now wishy washy back flipping stuff, and Rudd has been acting like a leader instead of a tired old man who should have retired when he promised Costello he would (just another of his long line of broken promises).

Anyone here get the news that Pauline Hansen is back and running in the next election. Im sure boomslanger will be positively thrilled with these latest developments.

go Pauline Hansen , she will keep the gov lively

Quoted from chris

go Pauline Hansen , she will keep the gov lively

Given she's been on a TV series it's a wonder the ALP didn't ask her to join the crew

Howard has stolen her voters and he's more ignorant and redneck than she'll ever be.

I love the way she professed to be a changed woman after her prison term becoming best friends with a young Aboriginal girl and then apologising for being a redneck. Now she's done an about-face and is banging on about disease ravaged Africans and democracy hating Muslims. Ahh, welcome back Pauline, glad to see you still have your spots. Good luck to you.

Quoted from boomslanger

At least Rudd has clearly stated what his views are, makes his points succinctly instead of Howard's now wishy washy back flipping stuff, and Rudd has been .

How can Rudd support the expansion of uranium mining but not support nuclear power. What does he think other countries are using it for? Does that come under the title of wishy washy politics?

Like any or at least the majority of opposition leaders, Rudd's opinion is simply the opposite of whatever the government puts on the plate. If Howard chose not to comment on an issue he wouldn't know which way to go

Quoted from The_Pragmatic_One

How can Rudd support the expansion of uranium mining but not support nuclear power. What does he think other countries are using it for? Does that come under the title of wishy washy politics?

How limp is that line of argument. What Rudd has clearly stated, as did the Australian of the year is that some countries have no choice but to go nuclear and those that are now relying it so heavily must be kept supplied until alternates are implemented over the decades (which is what Sweden is planning).

Australia has absolutely no need for nuclear energy. We have an abundance of renewables, leading renewable technologies (that have mostly been sold offshore because Howard won't support them, like plastic solar cells instead of silicon) and can have clean coal up and running as a stop gap at one tenth the cost of nuclear energy until renewable technologies are established.

Nothing wishy washy there, unlike Howard who does secret deals with a Liberal power broker and failed businessmen to setup a nuclear power plant even before he called the enquiry.

Quoted Text

Like any or at least the majority of opposition leaders, Rudd's opinion is simply the opposite of whatever the government puts on the plate. If Howard chose not to comment on an issue he wouldn't know which way to go.

What bull. The mark of Rudd has been his leading and being on the front foot whilst it is Howard government who are making all the personal attacks, retractions and negative comments. As one of the Canberra press gallery said, they have never seen Howard have a worse week in parliament of being on the back foot whilst putting his foot in it.

When even Andrew Bolt has a go at Howard, as he did twice on The Insiders last Sunday, then you know Howard is on the outer.

What are you doing giving Bolt publicity on this forum; this is a family friendly place, scrub your fingers with soap immediately.

What has Rudd come up with that we haven't heard from the ALP before? Building a high speed rail link in Sydney's west is about all I've heard. Of coarse you have to wonder why he's proposing this rather his NSW counterparts who have been in power for the last 12 years (and have achieved nothing apart from selling Sydney to Macquarie Bank for the last 11 years and 11 months. Do all of them have mac happy jobs lined up yet). Of coarse it's the rail links to Sydneys North and South that are falling apart anyway....

Is Medicare Gold back on the agenda yet? That was a big hit, lets make it cheaper for a group of people who go to the doctors twice a week for a checkup to get medical assistance

Strange that you mention Medicare Gold, Howard has taken many of the things in it and Abbott has announced he will be implementing them, but of course under a different name and of course saying it is all their doing. Medicare Gold was universally accepted across the medical community as a good policy in basis, and it was yet again a Howard hatchet and scare campaign that had it denigrated. In fact many of Howard's policies over the last 10 years have been Labor ideas or policies denigrated by the coalition at the time and then implemented at a later date under a new name.

Looking at failed policies (which the Howard government is littered with) what about the latest data from the ABS on the new IR legislation, what a turkey that is turning into?

boomslanger I work in the medical community it WAS NOT accepted, bulk billing changes put in after the last election (promises made during the election) such as Medicare plus bulk billing insentive items have nothing to do with anything the ALP have come up with. And Medical industry aside the public, the one's who chose which bunch of liars get control laughed at Medicare Gold. The only problem with healthcare is as Mike Gibson put it the governments minister for health is the person most in need of a heart transplant!

Oh on scare tactics lets look at the ALP's constant bey-atching about declining bulk billing rates!!

Quoted from tramp

What are you doing giving Bolt publicity on this forum; this is a family friendly place, scrub your fingers with soap immediately.

That's funny. I came to know of this bafoon because my wife used to debate him on the Age forums, obviously he was using an alias.

With the recent shake-up/anti-bias changes to the ABC Bolt has now become the "voice of impartiality" on the ABC. Well with a Liberal person now running the ABC what do we expect? How sad.

As my wife has pointed out, Bolt is a champion debater. Nothing he says is intellgient or necessarily factual, but we know that in debates this doesn't really matter.

He's like a pompous school boy who takes pride in debating and winning an argument. He has no facts to back up his arguments, all he does is dismiss everything by 'so-called' experts and says any evidence of reports provided by experts is 'false'.

He's an ultra-conservative that supports everything the Howard Government does without question. Sometimes I wonder who's hand is up who's arse with him and Howard. He's an expert denialist, one of his more recent ones is saying the stolen generation never happened. And if he wasn't a strong Israel supporter (again following Howard's lead), he would probably deny the Holocaust as well.

He appeals to the ignorance within people. He knows the initial reaction of the ignorant or un-enlightened is to fear and hate, especially on issues such as multiculturalism.

Unfortunately he's getting more and more publicity these days, spewing his verbal diarrhoea on anything political on numerous channels. All he does is deny everything and says "show me evidence", and when you do he derides it saying it's either false or produced by a non-credible or left-wing organisation, even though it was probably produced by the foremost experts on the issue who have national or global recognition.

My advice would be to ignore him, he has nothing intelligent to say. Perhaps we should just 'deny' him.

Aquamonkey, you'd love him.

x452 you're the one who can never change your opinion. I'd rather you keep your big mouth shut than throw insults my way

Quoted from aquamonkey

I'd rather you keep your big mouth shut than throw insults my way

Hey you're the die hard Howard/Liberal lover, you opened yourself right up. A properly balanced person has the power to criticise both sides of politics and wouldn't waste their time standing by a lame duck party or a lame duck PM who have nothing to offer this country (and I'm not necessarily saying that Labour does).

Quoted from aquamonkey

x452 you're the one who can never change your opinion.

On the contrary I am capable of changing my opinion. For example I used to support the U.S. but now do not. I didn't used to believe Howard was evil but now I do.

Opening that jar of "reality" that was hidden away in my cupboard was the best thing I ever did, you should try it sometime