This tour, as the tour of any other puppet, has been a waste of world resources for which our children will dearly pay in due time.

When will we start to see our insanity?

skeptic..........Nice point..........However, if you had 4 million dollars..........and I ashume you love this country............with that amount.....being Australian of course.......where and what would you spend the money on.........and be truthful if you can:)

BLUE

Not sure about that, Yabby.

>>*But... our Julia, "folksy"?*

I think so, Pericles. She's certainly not being pretentious,
which is common for people who do well in the political or
business world.<<

Are we talking about "the real Julia" here?

I actually quite like the lady. I think she's got guts, and deep down, I think she actually cares.

But her "folksiness" is as carefully crafted and stage-managed as every other part of her political life.

And - sadly - it is precisely that which leads to the unseemly displays of fawning adulation for a fading US talk-show host.

The image-minders sat down in their bat-cave, and emerged with this idea that we would somehow relate better to our PM if she was seen to be matey and "folksy" with our paid entertainer-lady.

I would imagine that it was all entirely against her own nature. What an unpretentious and highly intelligent gal from Unley High has in common with a noisy self-made billionaire from rural Mississippi is anybody's guess, of course. But mine is that the whole thing was stage-managed to the last detail, and our Julia was just playing her part.

Read it and weep all you naysayers. Oprah Winfrey's tour was a rip roaring success. Its always entertaining to read bucketloads of criticism from nobody journalists and self-appointed social commentators who are confused by and envious of such crowd pulling ability.

Like it or not, its there for all to see. The crowds, the fanfare and big bucks flowing in all directions.

As for the disparaging remarks about her looks and intelligence by the author - its simply schoolyard level jealousy and the type of nitpicking one expects from the confused, comparatively unsuccessful and self engrossed.

Perhaps we are starving for a benign individual with an ability to lead and inspire which is so lacking in this country.

*But mine is that the whole thing was stage-managed to the last detail, and our Julia was just playing her part.*

Oh I fully agree there Pericles. Sure it was stage managed. But
it was probably a bit of light relief for our Julia, rather then
face those ongoing pesky journalists, who are determined to trip
her up. She just took it on as part of being her role as PM.

But they do in fact have things in common which would bind them.
Both are working class girls, who have made it bigtime in life,
under their own steam, so they would respect one another for that.

Whatever one thinks of Oprah, she has serious crowd drawing power.
Some of those women in the audience, even flew over from Western
Australia, after winning tickets in the lottery that was held.

Great article with which I could not agree more.

To be honest, I found the whole episode irritating in the extreme. It seemed I didn't dare turn on TV unless some media type was breathlessly fawning over Oprah. That was bad enough, but when the PM joined the worshipping, I'd had enough.

I agree, Australia is beter than this.

We have great scientists, great inventors - black box, orbital engine, medical vacines and antibiotics and so on -, great artists, great muscians (classical I mean, and largely ignored), we had an economy which was supposed to be awe-inspiring and we are the most peaceful and successful multicultural nation in the world.

Why then do we need to fawn over American talk-show hosts and Irish do-gooder singers?