June 3, 2003

Johnny to the rescue

So Johnny's going to hang around eh? "While ever it remains in the party's best interests and my colleagues want me to, I'd be honoured to continue as leader." That's rubbish. Being PM is in his best interest and he'll do it as long as he can get away with it. You can't tell me that he doesn't love the overseas trips, the hobnobbing, the applause and of course, the power. I suspect the decision will now begin to cause him grief, as it will force Costello to decide how he's going to proceed when his ambitions are pretty clear. It will also force the Labor Party to smarten up their act as they realise that they're going to have to fight Howard at yet another election. The most amusing thing I saw today was the archival footage of Howard denying that he would even think of challenging Peacock for the leadership in terms that suggested Costello had referred to that press conference in preparing his own response to the same question today.

Personally, I think Costello could prove a real danger to Howard. He's usually played his cards very close to his chest (he rarely says much outside his role as Treasurer) and when he has expressed personal opinions, such as his thoughts on Aboriginal reconciliation and the republic, he's represented the polar opposite of Howard. I'll be interested to see how what he does now.

As for the Labor leadership, I suspect Crean's days are numbered. If Labor has to fight an election against Howard, Crean won't stand a chance. In that case Beazley would be a reasonable choice because this time he won't let Howard get away with the sort of racist rubbish and scaremongering we saw in the last election campaign. The electorate began to warm to Beazley after witnessing him in action against Howard in that campaign's debate and I suspect the same will happen next time around. If Labor opted for anyone else, they'd have the almost impossible task of establishing themselves against someone as entrenched as Howard. Mark Latham has been mentioned as leadership material but as refreshing as his blunt comments about Howard's "arse-licking" were, he needs to find a way of being blunt without alienating the general public through his choice of words. If he toned down the language but retained the directness of the message, he could be a deadly opponent for a run-of-the-mill politician who likes to dance around with fancy words. When was the last time you used 'multilateral' in a sentence? Posted by david at June 3, 2003 11:30 PM