So to me it looks like a bad case of attention deficit disorder from the pollies that the first thing I heard when i turned on ABC local radion today was that the Deputy Prime Minister Julia Gillard is mounting a leadership challenge against Rudd at 9am this morning.
By the time you read this chances are Australia will have its first female Prime Minister. Which is ace of course, and sadly in many ways no more than Rudd deserves for losing the plot and touch with public opinion so needlessly and so drastically in such a short space of time... however I'm sure there are better ways with dealing with the fact that this week Australians care more about Tim Cahill, Harry Kewell - hell - even Brett Holman (who hell he? Australia's top goal scorer of the tournament, that's who) than our political leaders.
I'm quite moved and trembly about Julia - easier because I'm not there and I haven't had to listen to all the droning details - but I predicted this to my mother about a month ago, and I always thought she was one to watch (Julia, not my mother). She may be gone in a couple of months, but it has happened, it really has.
I partially share your enthusiasm for Julia getting the top job - having a woman in there is a great thing, and especially a smart, socially conscious woman who seems to have done things her own way.
Sadly it's also yet another dirty and brutal example of the type of infighting by the left which tends to make people hoping for long lasting progressive change disillusioned. We know the Coalition here are no better, but I tend to hope for more from Labor. Perhaps Julia will be the one to bring that about... it would be nice, but we're heading in a similar direction to the UK right now where people are generally jack of politicians.
I agree, Labor seem to devour their own, they did it with Bob Hawke, and it does seem like they treat the process of democracy with some contempt.