Is he fairdinkum?
Does it matter?
Not in my view do we want our leaders to sound like English gentlemen?
Every leader talks in public to win friends and influence people.
I know Rudd has a well developed love of humor and fun.
He once broke from a speech at a party dinner to wish a Chinese couple celebrating a wedding good fortune, with a grin.
I wounder true is our medea so intent on a story its makes them up?
What do others think of using our own Aussie terms?
Do we still cringe at just being what we are Aussies?
Stone the flaming crows I hope not bloke.

I have no problems with using and hearing Aussie slang, in the right mouths.
Rudd is not the right mouth, he uses our slang as a tourist would, clumsily, and makes a fool of himself thereby. Don’t blame the media for this one, he shoved his own feet in his mouth. I just wish someone would teach him Australian English, because he babbles.
Between PC sensitivity, bureaucratese, and his natural pomposity, he makes a real dog’s breakfast of the simplest sentence. Add to that his weasel instincts as a politician, and what you see is what you get, a Delphic Oracle, who might as well be speaking in ancient Aramaic

I'm with Maximillion, it is not the words themselves but the delivery.

Rudd has a bad habit of trying too hard to sound like someone's chum but he does not quite pull it off. It has the effect of sounding insincere and contrived. Perhaps he is not aware of it, we don't always appear as we would like to in others' eyes.

Much rather he be himself and leave the spinning to the arachnids.

Don't you just cringe, when ever you see him about to do another interview. You wonder what he will say this time to bring the scorn of the world upon us, for electing such a cretin.

Pelican, he sounds just what he is, A smug fool, who is completely insincere.

Did you see the arrogance surface the other day, when he was asked about the selection of the new ministers. Just as well not many kids watch the news. The true KRudd shone through, for just a few seconds. Any kids who saw it, are probably still having nightmares. This bloke is such a cold, & nasty fish, he makes even Keating look warm & cuddly.

Rudd does appear to be trying too hard - cringe worthy.

But Howard made me cringe more - power walking, cricket, smiling with Bush etc.

Therefore on the Cringe-o-meter, Rudd rates lower than Howard.

Whereas Keating never made me cringe, laugh and cry, yes, but never cringe.

Dear Belly,

Did anyone not understand what the PM was saying?
So, what's the big deal? I would prefer he uses
language that at least can be understood rather
than speak in the verbose, hypocritical,
mendacious and ambiguous language of politicians
and their hangers-on.

As Dennis Pryor pointed out in his booklet,
"Political Pryorities," under the title -
"polspeak," - "Its fundamental method is to
express everything so vaguely and densely that
polspeakers can extricate themselves from
difficulties by claiming not to have said what they
did in fact say."

An example, Pryor gives - a Minister is about to make an
unpopular decision and will accordingly leave the
announcement to a public servant (Ministers announce only
good news themselves). A journalist, getting wind of this,
asks the Minister if it is true. The polspeak answer is:

"The decision-making process with regard to this matter is
currently in place. It would be improper for me at this
point in time to pre-empt the eventual outcome as the
result of community consultations, one way or another,
of that ongoing decision and consultative process."

Sounds a bit like Joe Hockey doesn't it?

Give me a PM who's NOT so laid-back, he's practically
fly-blown.

stone the crows..i shouldnt be suprised..how easy it is to create media distractions..[sir joe was the master at double metafore mixup to generate headlines..[that create a destraction from other topics]

whenever i hear the media focus on an absurdity..[i wonder what..real news..isnt being discussed]..the topic completly loses any relivance..when no one even bothers quoting what he was trying to say about what,in particular the what that bought the reply

[often the preceeding questions might be more revealing than his actual mutilated words]..regardless none are quoted...thus we are left with commentary and opinion...my opinion is the media got decieved by another slick tounged poli..feeding the chooks...by avoiding reply to a question.

Fair suck of the sav!
Its clear conservatives here in this thread dislike the bloke.
Just as clear they would use any thing to put him down.
Bob Hawk used Aussie English often.
We tend to sometimes put our country down needlessly.
All countrys talk differently.
Rudd is going to walk the next election in, increaseing his majority.
So maybe we should look closely at Mr Abbott a man with talks only rubbish in any matter.
You can not plant spuds and harvest water melons conservatives may benefit by showing us policys rather than nit picking.
London to a brick they have,nt got any, execpt opposition for opposition sake.
That well known Blue cattle dog could whipe the floor with this mob, lets have the election Bring it on bloke.

Thought I would get an answer by now, I meant every word.
Have no doubt Rudd will increase his majority in the next election.
Insulting him over being too Aussie is,, like all current Liberal policy,s blind stupidity.
An attempt to get people to think of Rudd and his team in the way Goughs team had been seen in 1975, after a great deal of self damage the ALP was on the nose.
But this is quite different, people think much more for themselves now, most of them.
Polls show a far different story now than then.
Most are aware Australia is in a far better position with its debt than other countrys, that Turnbull is fishing in a dry pond, will defeat his party and leadership if he forces an election.
What next? you would think tabling a new policy,s?
No the only chance of having a chance is the very likely back down of Turnbulls party in mid October, passing the governments bills to stop a both houses election.
Strike me pink that would look silly but its on believe me its much more than likely.
Howard said you can not fatten a pig on market day but this mob can not find the pig or the market.

Belly, I consider myself a centre lefty. I'll take Rudd over Howard any day.

But, I've got to admit, when he drops these slang clangers, he sounds like a patronising knob.

That pretty much sums it up.

Krudd is just showing the wear and tear of any glove puppet....


He started out a fake and now partronises the entire population by pretending he actual relates to Australians.

Don't Blame me....

I did not vote for the chinese-albino orthodontist and adult reincarnation of the Milky-Bar Kid.

This is to lighten things up a bit...

How do you know if you're a Conservative
in politics? Here's a few clues that were
obtained from several websites:

1) When people say Marx - you think Groucho.
2) Clean Air? - Looks clean to me.
3) You've tried to argue that poverty could
be abolished if they just lowered the minimum wage.
4) Remember laughing once as a kid.
5) Pro-lifer but support the death penalty.
6) You broke loose once at a party and removed
your neck tie.
7) You call education a luxury.
8) Why are you like a scud missile? Because you're
offensive and inaccurate.

And finally, Conservatives are the party that says
government doesn't work and then they get elected and
prove it.

cont'd:

I forgot to add that since 1984 to the present:
Conservatives have been looking for a leader.
Their Spiritual home is - going round in ever
decreasing concentric circles. Their preferred
sin - is - greed. And, their motto is:

"omnia deducenda." (Latin for -
'everything should be deductible.')

Well stike me up a dead dingos bottom I like that Foxy.
I get a kick out of Col too, love the thought he will have to put up with us[Labor] for at least another term.
I do not mind a bout of verbal tennis now and again, but strike me its funny when conservatives stump on to the playing field with no strings in their racket.
Rudd is what he is, he picked me out at NSW conference last year to taunt, an Aussie thing,
He had gone to an NRL game the night before saw the Sydney tigers get beaten by Broncos I think.
He wrongly but very funny thought I was a tiger fan, my shirt was their colors.
I may have got the last laugh [an Aussie thing]
He fell ill after eating a pie or something.
Good onya Kev, in your job only the depth varies.

Another irrelevant phenonemenon brought to us by the same people who brought us the totally newsworthy "chk chk boom" girl for a week.

What's the big deal?

The fact that Howard was known to use foul language and referred to aboriginals as "boongs" in private conversations was never an issue in the media so why is this passing piece of fluff being so seriously discussed?

Pity the public couldn't hear what Downer used to say in private. Probably goes for a lot of pollies

Belly, I am not a conservative but I won't pretend something about my 'side' of politics if it isn't true. There is already a sad lack of integrity in politics and things would be a lot better if we were more open and honest.

I am not a real fan of Mr Rudd but I would vote him in again over the Libs anyday. And as Fractelle said he is ten times better than Mr Howard.

To be honest I care less about how our PM's talk and their smugness ratio and more about what they are doing for the country. And Rudd seems to be doing some good things with investment in infrastructure to keep things moving in the economy.

I may not agree with him about all aspects of the stimulus package but believe it would have been disastrous with the Coalition in power who covetted revenue and paid out so much in middle class and corporate welfare for so many years with the effect of running many essential services down.

Maybe Rudd won't be perfect in this respect either (very poor show with the pensioners) and yes, he can appear smug but as we have said many times before, we tend to vote a government out in this country as opposed to voting a new one in.

Well said pelican, I can find no fault in anything you said.
Wobbles is right too.
My tilt at the oppersition is based on my true belief they are using insults, fear, even lies rather than developeing policys.
Lets be clear, my unionism is my life, Rudd and his deputy in particular have sold the union movement out.
Yes much better than Howard but not good enough.
Gillard knows better a leftist who swam the river, a lifetime of activism turned to the other side.
No! I never wanted a union heaven, but the ABCC should be killed now.
Yes replaced with Rudds trojan horse, accountability has no fears for me, but construction workers are not criminals.
The real crime, bad crime, in construction is inflated contracts and brazen kick backs , all in bosses hands not workers.
Still only Rudd could be elected to lead us.
I wish just for a second people could understand the very bad practices in safty on construction sites made possible by ABCC blindness and intent to cripple unions not thieves on the other side.

Dear Belly,

"There is a natural alluvial language on our doorstep
waiting to be mined. It is as Australian as a Chiko
roll and as familiar as a kookaburra's raucous laugh.
And it's ours to use any way we damn well please.

Here's an example which I heard on a Friday afternoon
running late to catch the last flight out of Wagga.

'Sorry, ocker, the Fokker's chocka!"

- Bryce Courtenay.

What Bryce Courtenay was drawing attention to was that
most of us have become too concerned with shape and
form and ancient purity of language - ignoring the colour
and feel of our Australian textures. I'm pleased that our
PM is making an attempt to use words inflected locally
to make their mark. He may not always succeed - but at
least he's looking forward instead of aping the past.

As Courtenay points out,

"Too often our writers ape the English way and look at
our native language as if our words were river pebbles
pushed forward and tumbled by another stream of influence,
a babbling English brook and not a roiling, flood-rushed
creek."

Our PM knows the difference.

Yes Foxy you are right.
While I looked back for past ocerisms, new ones are made every day.
The storm in this tea cup, it can not be overlooked, is the tragic policy,s or lack of them, by conservatives.
Mate, what a word, proud to use it at the counter I long ago stopped calling women love or darl and say thanks mate.
Even that got me bruised by a young lady who reminded me we did not even know one another?
She lost the verbal tennis that followed in straight sets, as elderly customers reminded her of its meaning.
The young are driving new Aussie speak and in my view you would not be dead for quids

As C.J.DENNIS would have said, "Strike a light!The fact that our Prime Minister is more like most Aussie blokes, shouldn't put the kibosh on his being a bit more "bong tong" when he talks to other Leaders of the world.He doesn't need to bung it on when he's talking to us.