Andrei.Hicks wrote on Jun 18
th, 2011 at 1:30pm:
I think of the current crop -
Rudd was a leader. He just didn't carry his own party members. His support tended to be more out in the field with non-party members. Very good to win elections, very poor mid-term when you need your own men to back you. He was accepted, he was never liked. There's clearly reasons for that, it can't be everyone else that has the problem.
Gillard is not a leader. She is more liked in her own party - but I don't think anyone thinks she is a politician of moral conviction. She's a classic former ambulance chaser lawyer, say or do anything depending on the way in which the wind blows. When she is gone, nobody will look back on her time as PM and say it was any good.
Abbott's leadership is interesting. His policies and beliefs are a lot more in sync with mine than many, but he just lacks that statesmanship for a PM in my opinion. Again he is liked by his own party - or the vast majority - but he struggles to win the centre ground.
Turnbull is the Rudd of the Liberals. He'd win an election with ease. He'd have won the last one. But he is too much to the Left on several key issues for people of my political mindset to be totally comfortable with him. I like his economic policies, it is his social ones where I have the issue.
Who out there could lead the country well?
I can honestly say I can't think of anyone. This current crop of politicians has to be the poorest in standard for many decades.
....................
Andrei, Abbott is doing well as leader of the Opposition. Turnbull is not trusted by the right....like you, most of the lib voters do not trust his social position. He read the public sentiment badly when he fell in with Rudd and his ETS schemes. Secretly, he is a socialist, I believe. He is just finding it opportune to be in the Liberal Party. As I have said before, he would make a good leader of the Labor Party.
Abbott is denigrated as "The Mad Monk", but there is much more to him than his fling with the priesthood. He is very much a community spirited man, has a strong social conscience, has a degree in Economics, is a Rhodes Scholar, has been a journalist, is a big supporter and works tirelessly for things he believes in, i.e. a volunteer Fire Fighter, a volunteer lifesaver, various charities for whom he rides, or runs. I see a man of good character and one who is maligned unfairly. He should be given a chance at being PM, as he has brought the Liberal Party out of the doldrums they were in under Turnbull. I think he would make an excellent Prime Minister. The left have been waiting for him to go off half-cocked, but it hasn't happened.....what they are remembering is his stint as chief headkicker for the libs....but he is now in a different position and knows it.
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