belly/quote..""Rudd,..immensely popular with voters""

no not really matye
he is good at getting a flash crowd
just for the media..[much like juliar]...never bigger than a bussload

mate did you hear him with laurie oaks
sounding so smug..poor dude,but remiding me so much of juliar
[she has adopted many of his worse points

""Gillard...More liked within the party
and Union movement,..so in a two horse race?""

it has to be a non unionist leader
ryunning on a union ticket..[like a war cabnet]
not mates and factions

the less both of them say the better
its their voices both of em
im sick of hearing both of em

""It says all the above voted
to__ give away to others
their right to be heard.""

parties shouldnt be re leaders
leaders deligate duties..then TRUST them
oppointed by the people of the party..to do their job

""my party is not private property of power brokers."'

absolutly
if they arnt there for fairness
what are they there for..[it should all be under secret ballot!]

no party line..all by conscience vote
each notifying..their voters..as minesters release the facts

""..that lie,..that word the hobbles both my movements SOLIDARITY?
A word used to sweep truth under the carpet.
To stop fixing problems.""

concensus?
conscience?
888...up the worker?

""Used here to reinstall
a woman who can only self destruct after a win.""

asa will rudd
MATE THE PARTY SYSTEM..has failed
regardless of which ego leads it...we need no more leader ego

no more mates rates
jobs for the boys...[greenie car scemes for mates]

""it needs Kevin Rudd,
or the third candidate Bill Shorten,
not another Latham/Gillard plant Simon Cretin.""

mate..it needs a polygraph
or a ventilator..[de-fib-relator]

*And seeing us
through the global financial crisis was no small feat*

Hang on Lexi, it was ten years of Costello's work that saw us
through the global financial crisis. He'd set it all up,
Rudd simply took the credit.

If the Libs had had any brains at the time, they would now have
Costello there rather then Abbott and that would certainly have
been better for them and for the country.

The problem is that alot of the public prefer arse kissers.
Howard was an arse kisser, so is Rudd, people fall for it.
It pushes their emotional buttons.

People like Keating and Costello are not arse kissers, but
if you look back in history, they are the politicians who've
made the changes that benefitted the country.

That is the problem with democracy. When it turns into a circus,
we land up with such disasters as Bush in America and Yeltsin
in Russia. The cost to those nations was huge in both cases.

In the end I focus on what is good for the nation, not on who
is good at kissing babies, or gathering star struck teenagers around
themselves and thinking it matters that they like to be photographed.
Justin Beaver can do the same, that does not mean he can lead a
country.

Yabby,

It was Keating that put in place the reforms that Costello in turn managed. Was Costello a reformer or someone that was innovative in the economic realm?

After the Liberal rout of 2007, Costello gleaned much satisfaction in telling his colleagues in no uncertain terms that they could stick their opposition leadership where the sun don't shine. Never in a million years would he have dreamed that he'd have a chance to gain the Prime Ministership in under two terms. Nope, he envisaged he'd have to wait at least six years before he'd get a look in. As it turned out, if he'd stuck around he probably would have won the 2010 election.

You can argue till the cows come home whether it was Rudd's quick intervention of fiscal injection into the economy and infrastructure that saved us from the ravages of the GFC...or not....or whether they were "too" hastily implemented.

In any case, Costello's work was only one factor in seeing us through the financial crisis. His stash of savings would have lasted five minutes compared to the billions required stimulate the economy amidst the GFC.

pureo..it wernt keating or costhello
it was the people who paid

in so many ways..selling telstra/common wealth bank
water rights..wheat export etc[federally]
states selling infastructure and creating huge debt locally

but a debt free dollar on the other hand
while all our mates have huge deficits

as i told kevin..when they all devalue
we must follow them...downwards..[or watch our rising dollar explode]

se getting debt was virtually debt free..[as all are broke]
being the only debt free..state is insanity..we let fools clear the debt..by stealing public assets

now that concept [asset stripping peoples infastructure]
is going global

and with our high dollar[artifically kept low
by howard spending on his mates..like ordering billions of jets]
just to keep dollar parity low...

while stealing us blind..to only loose it again..
via too expensive dollar values..stock market collapses

the combined crimes of the parties
seving demon autocratic favour

while impoverishing us into sublimated poverty

im too angry to explain

*His stash of savings would have lasted five minutes compared to the billions required stimulate the economy amidst the GFC*

Not really, Poirot. Costello had more stashed away in the Future
Fund alone, then Rudd gave away to the public. main thing he
got the Govt out of its huge debt levels, so that there was money
in the kitty to be spent. Business had the confidence to invest
in Australia for all those years, which is why we are doing well
now. Economies don't turn around on a dime, it takes years.

Costello continued what Keating started. Both men deserve credit.
Things like reforming APRA were vital for our banking system.
Had the Australian treasury been stripped bare, as say Obama faced
after Bush, what would Kevie have done then?

Costello felt that his party should have backed him, when Howard
had passed his use by date and could not see it. I guess the party
looked at the polls and Costello never was popular with the public.
So he rightfully pointed out that there were other jobs that he
could do apart from being a politician. So now you voters should
be thrilled, you have Abbott instead!

The Australian public gets what it deserves and the public clearly
prefers arse lickers.

yabby,

I agree that Costello was incensed that his party didn't elbow Howard out of the top job. One of the enduring scenes in my memory is watching (yet again) Howard promising to hand over leadership (sometime after another Liberal re-election) to Costello on the Seven Thirty Report just prior to the 2007 election. Costello was sitting next to Howard and they were presenting themselves as a double leadership act to take to the election. After all the Howard years, it had come to this!...and Howard still lorded it over Costello's ambition - and Costello still hadn't nurtured the strength of character to force Howard out. It was pathetic. Costello must have known he was on the Liberal's version of the Titanic - we all did - and yet he still couldn't convince the party room to turf Howard - quite amazing when you think about it.