Impressive

[A Duke]

I don't know, I know at least two blokes who took the job on as soon as the baby was old enough to be fed from a bottle, and I reckon they did all right.

Hi,
If I was a woman I would say all the hard work was done by the time it was borne, let alone weaned.

[silentC]

Well in that case, they can go back to work the next day!

I used to buy my coffee from a shop in Sydney. The lady who ran it was expecting and in due course she gave birth. She was back a week later, with the baby in it's basket sitting on top of a stack of boxes in the corner.

Contrast that with my mother, who was forced to give up her job when she married. Now that's the 50's mentality!

[FenceFurniture]

On topic (after an interesting diversion).

And then........we have this little gem (listen for the tittering in the background):




However, he may be wrong - it might just be him. One never knows.

[FenceFurniture]

An assessment of Abbott from the master of "on the ball":





From a former Prime Minister (on Abbott's side of politics):

[silentC]

OK then getting really back on topic, comparing ours to theirs, we have Tony Abbot and they had George W. Bush. GW was the master of the malapropism, Tony could only dream of being that good.

[jimbur]

Being older I use Billy McMahon as the benchmark for ineptitude.

[Poppa]

I'm not a big fan of Abbott. He is a religious fanatic, an arch conservative, intellectually sluggish in discussion (watch him get asked a difficult question), inherently sexist, and I disagree with many of the things his government has done. However, in comparison with the leaders of the Labor party for the last 6 years he is IMHO the better alternative. Labor selects its parliamentarians primarily from the ranks of the leaders of the union movement (the majority of Labor's parliamentarians over the past 10 years have been ex-unionists, both in the senate and in the house of reps). The union leaders are proving to be more and more corrupt with every passing year. I firmly believe Gillard should have spent a long period in jail, and I'm also sure that Shorten is very aware of why she should have gone to jail. When Rudd tried to loosen the strangle hold the unions have on Labor's backrooms they got rid of him (although I'm not sure keeping him would have been any better for the country unfortunately). Some of the key backers of Gillard for PM are now under serious threat of going to jail in the current ICAC enquiry (and they should go to jail). While Rudd was in some ways a breath of fresh air from Labor, he was clearly very difficult to work with. And by the time he regained the leadership there was no way that Labor could have won against a donkey. Unfortunately there are many pollies on both sides of the house that are only in it for what they can get out of it. However misguided Abbott is, I don't think that is the case with him. And whatever we might think about the current boat people policy (I'm not a fan btw), there have been no people drowning in sinking boats off Australian shores for more than 3 months now. And if that upsets the corrupt Indonesian politicians I really don't care...

[Pat]

If Tony is "impressive" what about Malcolm?

Tony spends nearly every waking moment looking over his shoulder, for one slip up and Malcolm will take the lead . . .

[FenceFurniture]

If they'd have kept Malcolm for the 2010 election they'd have been a shoe-in. Abbot only beat Turnbull for party leadership by one vote.

Rudd's biggest political mistake was not going for a double dissolution election over the ETS (they'd have won handsomely) and the Labor Party's was knifing a PM that was popular - we objected, and told them so in the 2010 election.

[jimbur]

If they'd have kept Malcolm for the 2010 election they'd have been a shoe-in. Abbot only beat Turnbull for party leadership by one vote.

Rudd's biggest political mistake was not going for a double dissolution election over the ETS (they'd have one handsomely) and the Labor Party's was knifing a PM that was popular - we objected, and told them so in the 2010 election.

Exactly so.

[Twisted Tenon]

I'm not a big fan of Abbott. He is a religious fanatic, an arch conservative, intellectually sluggish in discussion (watch him get asked a difficult question), inherently sexist, and I disagree with many of the things his government has done. However, in comparison with the leaders of the Labor party for the last 6 years he is IMHO the better alternative.

So Poppa
are you saying that Abbott is the best of a bad bunch?

TT

[Bushmiller]

Well, it is at least a good thing that he is creating a good impression overseas. Politics is only about gaining power and fooling us anyway.

Evidence of that came in 2010 from Abbott, when we had a hung parliament (no clear winner with a majority in the lower house of Reps). One of the two major parties needed to secure the support of the 3 Independents. One of these Independents was Tony Windsor, who was one of our most credible politicians. He later said in The House that Abbott pleaded with him to get the the top job by saying "I'll do anything to get the job except sell my ar*e".

Abbott didn't deny saying it.

I think it was particularly telling that the three independents were all from a conservative background and you would have expected them to support the Liberals (who are really not liberal but conservative ), but clearly none of them could stomach Abbott.

Regards
Paul

[Bushmiller]

TT,
An excellent point. Unfortunately I've not seen other press conferences. All that I can say is that in the press conferences that I've seen, Tony Abbott is head and shoulders above our local fare for the last 20+ years.

I guess what I'm saying is "That was impressive" while I've not been able to say the same for those 20+ years. Or put another way, once is better than never.

RR

Regrettably that is more an indictment of your people more than a vote of confidence for our bloke. If you want to see a diplomat in action, have a look at Malcolm Turnbull. I don't believe anybody on either side of Australian politics can hold a candle to him and yet he was ousted by the likes of Abbot and remains in the political doldrums.

I believe Abbott is the more articulate (just), Australian answer to George W. The primary difference is that Abbott knows where America is while Bush thought Australia was a bit to the right of Germany

Regards
Paul

[smidsy]

If you really like Abbott you can have him - as a bonus (booby prize) we'll also throw in Campbell Newman (aka Can Do Campbell) the SOB premier of Queensland who gave us a tighten your belt speech days after he got a $70k pay rise.

[Poppa]

So Poppa
are you saying that Abbott is the best of a bad bunch?

TT

No, not at all. I'm saying that of the 2 main parties I would prefer to vote for the Libs at the moment rather than Labor, because I think the corruption in Labor is more endemic. Not that it is absent from the Lib side, just less entrenched and severe. Unfortunately I think both sides have too many that are only attracted to the job by what they can personally get out of it. I agree with a few others that Turnbull would be a better option than Abbott. I initially had high hopes for Rudd because I thought he might have a chance at taking on the corruption within Labor and fixing it, but alas that didn't work out.