mark latham

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Latham calls Swan “insipid”: a good tactic?

20 March 2008 in Politics by Stilgherrian | No comments

So former Labor leader Mark Latham reckons Treasurer Wayne Swan is insipid, insecure and a try-hard…

In a column in the Financial Review, Mr Latham says Mr Swan has had more than a decade to develop his speaking style, but he is still struggling.

He says his body language is cramped, his delivery too rapid — and all up, he tries too hard.

Claiming that Rudd won’t wait any longer for Swan to improve, Latham reckons Rudd’s likely to name Julia Gillard as Treasurer.

I was alerted to this story by Noel Kelly, who said “With friend[s] like Mark Latham… Should we make him the federal opposition leader?” But I actually think it’s a tactic which works in Chairman Rudd’s favour.

Latham floats the idea of tipping Swan to see how the numbers lie — both in the party room and in the commentariat. Rudd can then choose to agree with him and sack Swan, or just say that Latham’s a crank and support Swan, as the situation demands.

The Narrowing, (not) by Dean Koontz

13 November 2007 in Politics by Stilgherrian | 4 comments

Graph of two-party preferred preferences since the campaign started

The Narrowing. The idea that during an election campaign voters return to the incumbent government. Supposedly the reality of an actual vote, as opposed to mere opinion polls, triggers voters’ fear of the unknown. As this graph shows, if there is a Narrowing, it’s bloody tiny this time around.

The Narrowing is nothing but mythology.

In the 2001 campaign, Kim Beazley started from behind and gained 5% before voting day — not enough to win, but enough to give him hope for next time. That’s a shift against the incumbent party, of course.

Of course that loose-mouthed thug Mark Latham went and screwed all that up. But this time we can see what the electorate really thinks of Howard now that they’ve got a credible alternative.

As the graph from Possums Pollytics shows, yes, you can sort of see a little sign of The Narrowing. But that gentle glidepath has to cross that line marked “50″.

Yes, the Coalition might be able to claw back enough support to win. As long as the election is on 28 July 2008.

I gather the election is sooner than that.

“Clever”, but too late?

09 October 2007 in Language, Politics by Stilgherrian | No comments

Photo from government Climate Clever campaign

The government’s Climate Clever campaign is, apart from a wonderful subject for satire, apparently a nice attempt to re-associate the word “clever”.

As Possums Pollytics explains, it’s trying to re-frame the word away from “John Howard is clever” as in “tricky” to “clever policies on climate”.

Word association is a powerful propaganda weapon. Think Beazley and ticker, Keating and elitist, Latham and learner, and now Howard and clever. If the Libs could disassociate the word clever from Howard and re-associate it with climate change policies, not only would they neutralise the ALP attack, but would reduce the power of any residual word association with Howard.

A shame it’s probably way too late to make a difference. Possums also reports on the latest AC Nielsen polls with a simple “Business as usual. Nothing to see here folks, please move on.”

Mr Howard, please just call the bloody election. The longer you leave it now, the more you’re going to piss off the very people you’re trying to impress.

2 Quotes for Friday

30 March 2007 in Film, Humour by Stilgherrian | No comments

Perhaps if I post these two rather amusing quotes it’ll help defuse my anger for certain other members of the “human race” (maybe I’ll tell you about that another time).

Read the rest of this entry »

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