The G20 leaders walk into a bar. Who smiles the most?

Samantha says:

12:51pm | 28/09/09

We get it Kevin, you have been practicing in the mirror, well done. All the people around him are smirking and look like they are laughing at him, was he making a joke or something? We all know as soon as he makes a joke, he is always the one who finds it most funny and the last to stop laughing.

Dave says:

12:54pm | 28/09/09

He’s grinning like he just got some that he souldn’t have….

Heléna says:

01:14pm | 28/09/09

I lovd the smiling Obama in this footage
http://vimeo.com/moogaloop.swf?clip_id=6747788&

JP says:

01:18pm | 28/09/09

Compared to Kevin the French president appears to keep his smile for his wife tonight!

OMG says:

01:26pm | 28/09/09

people who fart in elevator’s smile like that

Schmavo says:

01:28pm | 28/09/09

Maybe he just saw “Kevin Rudd PM” on Rove

Shane says:

01:30pm | 28/09/09

Who Farted

shabangabang says:

01:38pm | 28/09/09

Perhaps Berlesconi has just offered him some hookers.

Greg Atkinson says:

01:42pm | 28/09/09

He is smiling because he has convinced most of the media and the Australian public that he is really a driving force in the G-20. See: http://www.shareswatch.com.au/blog/opinion/a-g-20-love-in-world-leaders-on-parade-and-spoonfed-journalists/

MD says:

01:43pm | 28/09/09

Everyboby loves me, especially me Ia am the greatest thing since plastic was invented

J says:

01:52pm | 28/09/09

Smug, self-satisfied, nauseating fake thy name is Kevin.

Zeta says:

02:03pm | 28/09/09

Rudd’s love affair with the G20 really highlights, for me at least, that he’s the bizarro world John Howard.

You have this international consensus pre-911 that the United Nations, though critically flawed, is the only way to get the world’s Governments mobile on important issues concerning social welfare and security. John Howard trends away from the UN toward a bilateral relationship with United States, who were about to get into a messy, protracted war, to grant the nation relevancy.

Then, you have a renewed international consensus that the way forward is through multilateral ties with emergant powerhouse economies like China and India, and that the traditional Western alliance structures, which keep Australia out of the Pacific, where we need most to be are faltering in the face of the Global Financial Crisis. So Kevin Rudd trends toward the G20, who are about to get themselves into a messy, protracted battle with their own regulatory systems to avoid recessions.

Just as Howard was Americo-centric in his positioning of Australia on the world stage, Rudd’s G20 push risks making us Euro-centric. It’s the European Union and the EU’s biggest economies that dominate the G20, especially since Germany and Turkey are basically double dipping their representation by having the fixed 20th member as the EU itself.

That leaves Australia and Indonesia as the only voices for this region. And Indonesia hasn’t exactly shown a disposition toward thinking of any one other than itself.

Is this just sour grapes over us being a perrenial ‘mightabeen’ on the UN Security Council? Or does Rudd really beleive this is where Australia should be heading?

Rob says:

02:08pm | 28/09/09

Nauseating negativity is astounding. It is a photo opportunity for world leaders… it is sounding like a few morbid lot here think the PM should be leaking tears or something…? Get a grip… How many others in the photo’s are smiling… or would readers happen to want their PM to represent Australians in general as narking old men and women?

Chris L says:

02:08pm | 28/09/09

Aren’t we a bitter crew? Nothing to complain about except the fact that he’s smiling too much.

Rob says:

02:09pm | 28/09/09

All the hubris on the world stage that Rudd used to mock Howard for… and now he does all the same stuff himself, plus MORE.

Richard says:

02:11pm | 28/09/09

John Howard’s great world leading achievement being to lap dance for Bush and be a WMD legend with the US… So would we rather be seen as warm mongers or coordinating economic reformists?
Anglo-Centric, Euro-Centric or Cino-Centric… that’s way better than glassing the middle east with the US…

JJ says:

02:22pm | 28/09/09

Could the man be any more fake? Rudd the bad dud.

iansand says:

02:23pm | 28/09/09

We need Tony Abbott’s descriptive skills for the correct term for this smile.

John A Neve says:

02:24pm | 28/09/09

Zeta,
I admit that a number or words used by yourself, have no meaning for me. I
also could not find them in my old dictionary!
However, I think I have the theme of your post.

Howard lacked in my view any international view point, at best he was a sycophant to the American dream.

Rudd, on the other hand has a strong international/world ambition, in a global economy I feel Rudd is on the right path. The G20 give the two biggest players, China and India a voice and they both deserve one. While it hurts my Anglo-Saxon roots, Britain and America are spent forces. The playing field is leveling out western dominance is dying.

Like him or hate him, Rudd is going in the right direction for the betterment
od Australia.

Mr Pastry says:

02:28pm | 28/09/09

Little Kev has been let into the prefects room and is showing off as he overflows with excitement,  the senior prefects have a way of dealing with the juniors which will remove the hysterical smiling quite quickly.

Andrew says:

02:30pm | 28/09/09

The answer to the question, who smile the most is easy, it’s Berlesconi because he thinks the G20 is funding hookers for all. 

Me says:

02:36pm | 28/09/09

Golly gosh, the man is smiling, how DARE he!!!1eleventy1!!1! Quick, hurl cheap shots and snarky comments at him!

Tony says:

02:41pm | 28/09/09

Of the last 3 Prime Ministers we’re had, Howard, Keating and Hawke, I didn’t particularly like all of them but at least had no doubts that their loyalties lay with Australia. With Krudd, well, I’m not at all that sure.
Doesn’t really matter, the left factions in Labor will wait till enough people wake up to him, kick him out and install Comrade Gillard as P.M. soon enough.

Tom says:

03:02pm | 28/09/09

OUR leader on the world stage, receiving praise and recognition from his peers and all RELEVANT institutions. Yet, the twisted Liberal Loonies in his own country refuse to give credit where it’s due. 
Or, perhaps it’s just jealousy, seen as your beloved dictator Howard could NEVER receive this amount of praise around the world.

Steve says:

03:03pm | 28/09/09

IT WAS ME !!

Andrew says:

03:06pm | 28/09/09

Most nauseating of all is any serious commentary of K-Rudd’s psychological response, reaction, smile, self-worth or self-evaluation.

Anyhow, his smile is is squarely aimed at Howard, Costello and the Turnpike.

Patrick says:

03:10pm | 28/09/09

Perhaps you’re the one who is asleep Tony

Rob_3680 says:

03:14pm | 28/09/09

Any of you lot care to think that the other leaders actually do not know how to smile or that in their country smiling is not usually the norm…
Kevin Rudd is proud to be on the world stage representing our nation’s successes… any of you who would prefer a morbid waring advocate such as Howard should quietly slip back behind the skirting boards again… he’s GONE!

Clinton says:

03:24pm | 28/09/09

I’d be smiling like that to if I got to attend such a high powered circle jerk where everyone praises everyone else for all being fabulously fantastic.

Andrew says:

03:28pm | 28/09/09

...Nevertheless, I can’t resist! My Hypocriteous Complex is playing up.

In the area of facial analys, every time John Howard forced that weasel smile of his I would have to strike myself repeatedly with an elastic band around my wrist to distract me from the painful reflux and heartache that would follow.

If Howard got re-elected in 2007 I was planning on resuming my Heroin addiciton.

Brad Coward says:

03:29pm | 28/09/09

I don’t know who has the biggest smile, but I do know who has the biggest ego !

Graeme Farrell says:

03:54pm | 28/09/09

He has just heard that Osama Bin Laden is going to sponsor the War Museum for the Last Post using the stimulus package that was sent to all of his tribesmen and their camels

Rob says:

03:55pm | 28/09/09

Can someone explain to me why there are 32 people in the G20 photo?

Andrew says:

04:03pm | 28/09/09

Rob, I think you have uncovered the G20 conspiracy. It is a plot to get Cuba onto the negotating table.

Malcophants says:

04:06pm | 28/09/09

And the joke he told?? well the PUNCH line is…. and you thought the gnome had original ideas….lol
Did you hear the one about the new party drug of choice for the liberal front bench….. NEGOMALS (tm)

Roland says:

04:12pm | 28/09/09

The man’s got plenty to smile about, much to the chagrin of his political opponents.
Go, Kevin. Make the most of it while you’ve got some clout!

Rob_3680 says:

04:13pm | 28/09/09

Rob there are state leaders and attending treasury/finance leaders…
Face it folks… Kevin Rudd has played a key role in reshaping future economic strategies in banking and financial management, environmental policy on the global scale, whilst the Liberal party are sitting in a shack by the dried up Murray doing rain dances to the old faithful dust devils the dried up river bed. No one wants to lead the Liberals except the Turnpike doing dagger dances between his fingers for penny’s…
The only good Johnny Howard did was the warring lap dance down the streets of Bagdad with Georgy Bush and cohorts… prior to that selling wheat for guns via AWB courtesy of Alex ‘Stockings’ Downer
Bravo!

James says:

04:30pm | 28/09/09

He should stop taking those drugs, it’s embarrassing.

Matt Lambert says:

04:31pm | 28/09/09

Oh please. Whats wrong with smiling ? When Howard smiled it cracked his face. When Hawk smiled we got a holiday…when Rudd smiled we FINALLY got a seat in a world body that doesnt include Guam.

Zeta says:

04:39pm | 28/09/09

@ Rob: The G20 participants aren’t the top 20 leaders, they’re actually the Group of Twenty Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors, which is a mouthful, so they call it the G20, but if they were to be mathematically accurate, it should be G40, since theoretically, that’s how many participants there might be, supposing each country has both a Finance Minister and a Central Bank Governor. When they meet at the Heads-Of-Government level, (which I’m annoyed isn’t called G20: HOG), chuckle heads like Rudd get to go. But the rest of the time, participants include both Finance Minister and Central Bank Governors.

In that photo, you can also see the Governor of the European Central Bank, the Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund, the Chairman of the IMFC, the President of the World Bank and the Chairman of the Development Committee of the IMF and the World bank.

You have a whole Dan Brown novel right there.

Sam Chowder says:

04:41pm | 28/09/09

@Rob - great point - it is reassuring that the world’s economy is in such safe mathmatical wizards. 
Does anybody know what the “positive outcomes” of this G20 nonsense is and when did “frameworks” replace “roadmaps”.

Grover says:

04:43pm | 28/09/09

Every time I see Rudd smiling like this it makes me think that he is in politics just for the adulation.

IAN WENSOR says:

04:48pm | 28/09/09

He just loves to revel in such ill gotten and and undeserved glory.

Ken says:

04:49pm | 28/09/09

Look at me…Look at me!...What happened to a sense of dignity when representing our great country.
Unjustifiably he looks like a cheshire cat after a night on the tiles…..which he probably has had.  God Help Us!

IAN WENSOR says:

05:02pm | 28/09/09

Appears Rudd the dud - like Sir Humphry in ‘Yes Minister’ - snuck in through the back door when those photos were taken !!!

Patrick says:

05:24pm | 28/09/09

Ken, you’re kidding right? The man has a smile and suddenly he loses his dignity?

There are some attacks on Kevin Rudd that are warranted, and then there are those that are simply pathetic.

Peter Ellis says:

05:30pm | 28/09/09

Photo number one, his smile is fake as he has eaten too much, his guts is bloated and he has had to undo his jacket revealing his silly red tie being forced out through the gap.

Photo # 2 this is a genuine smile as he is releasing the pressure and reducing his discompfort.  The guys in front of him don’t realise the gastronomical problems he is facing although the guys behind him don’t look too pleased.

Photo # 3 That’s a grimmace, he now realises he “has to go” things are getting a bit squelchy down there.

Photo #4 That’s a real satified smile.  Dangers over bloatings gone down, and he can now re-button his jacket.

Mike says:

05:46pm | 28/09/09

He’s smiling because he’s happy to be there representing Australia. Its that simple. What is wrong with you people? WAKE UP

pabz says:

05:49pm | 28/09/09

Perhaps his mother just told him to smile for photos? lol, seems pretty standard if you ask me.

Although in pic one..  I can’t see sarkozkys hands… =P

GeeJay says:

05:50pm | 28/09/09

when will u redneck libs with your smarmy comments realise the election was lost 2 years ago?.we now have a smart leader who is at ease on the world stage.

Philip Crowley says:

05:59pm | 28/09/09

Zeta… I agree entirely with your analysis. My thinking is that Rudd does actually believe he is doing the ‘right thing’ in every respect, regarding the National interest. He is also extremely proactive in pursuing all things in the best interest of Rudd. I agree Australia’s best course is to be the voice of reason, and leader by example, in Asia-Pacific. In many cases what is best for our closest neighbours, can also be good for us. Thinking globally, whilst discounting regional necessities, may leave us without a seat anywhere when the music stops.

Shane From Melbourne says:

06:27pm | 28/09/09

He’s smiling because he believes all the BS that the other leaders are telling him…..

JJ says:

06:44pm | 28/09/09

John Neve says “Like him or hate him, Rudd is going in the right direction for the betterment
od Australia”
Clearly, you’ve been on the turps this weekend Johnny boy.

Stephen says:

09:22pm | 28/09/09

The only reason we notice his smile is because he is our PM.

I’m sure the French are all on the floor laughing at Sarkozy, although he is pretty awesome.

Susan Joanas says:

09:24pm | 28/09/09

Mr Krudd is smiling because he has just told the assembled multitude that future generations will have to pay for his largess{ the gifts or money given in such a way; a benevolent demeanor} ....knowing he will be well gone by then.

SJ,
QLD

resi says:

11:04pm | 28/09/09

Australia can be proud to long last have a Prime Minister who represents Australia well overseas.  Good on him for smiling and achieving what is good for Australia.

Tim says:

11:24pm | 28/09/09

C’mon gang…credit where credit is due?  He’s made some real waves at the summit and all we have to complain about is his smile?  This smacks of liberal party members who are bored of solitaire and need something else to do with their lunch breaks.  This is an absolute beat up.  Keep up the good work Kev.

Andrew says:

01:28am | 29/09/09

More pertinent would be the rest of the world’s media opinion of his performance, not just Australia’s.

steve says:

05:56am | 29/09/09

helena 1:14

fake. noob.

RMS says:

07:39am | 29/09/09

Ah, the rest of the world are slowly working out what we in Australia take as a given since Mr Rudd became prime Minister. We have a blank page show pony running the show.

Wayne says:

07:52am | 29/09/09

You would smile like Rudd if you had a hand up you’re ar** telling you what to say, when to say it. That’s not the Kevin Rudd I know but a hand puppet.

Fanta Pants says:

08:11am | 29/09/09

I’d be smiling to if I’d just pissed $3,000,000 AUD worth of taxpayers money up against the wall in a week long trip to the UN for a circle jerk off competition with other word leaders who also spent a laz few million to attend as well. Global Finacial Crisis, Economic Meltdown, Doomsday Depression, surely you jest.

Pack of wankers, each and everyone of them.

Professor Wallace J Speilberg says:

08:17am | 29/09/09

He’s only smiling like that because his eyes make him look Chinese, therefore giving him the ability and agility to speak with a smoother Madarin tongue.

Liberal voter says:

08:17am | 29/09/09

Arent we all a cynical lot.  I am a liberal voter, but once the election is run we need to give respect to the Office of Prime Minister.  The US does it very well with President particularly on the international stage - whether Republican or Democrat the office demands respect.  Good on you Kev.  The smile says it all - the Australian people have survived the storm and prospered.  How would the French, Italians and British feel if they saw their respective representatives smiling when it is so hard for them right now.  Good on you Ruddy - keep on smiling!

Bob H says:

08:25am | 29/09/09

A dizzy blond excited by the proximity of power.

Carl Palmer says:

08:45am | 29/09/09

If the smile is a fake, what does that tell us about this PM?  With PM’s such as Bob Hawke, Paul Keating and John Howard, what you saw is what you got whether you liked them or not. However with this PM there is a bit of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde about him. The plane and the “F” word incidents made me stop and think that the butter won’t melt in his mouth portrayal of this PM via his minders and the media isn’t a consistent reflection of who he really is.  I suspect that’s why people have made not so nice comments regarding these photos. The hubris he carries locally and on the international stage is not Australian and will eventually bring him undone once the Australian people see thru the facade.

Heléna says:

09:58pm | 29/09/09

@ steve 556a

I thought so too - but does not seem to be
http://vimeo.com/user415024

either way it’s clever

Joel B1 says:

08:36am | 30/09/09

Wow, what a lot of really, really, really smart come-backs by the Labor supporters (eg: “your beloved dictator Howard could NEVER receive this amount of praise”)

No seriously, they’re correct, and at least Gillard’s not there. Choosing who’s got the more mawkish grin between Rudd and her has been doing my head in for the last 2 years or so…