The president's in town

Barack Obama was always going to have a tough presidency. He set the bar so high for himself during the arduous two year lead-up to his election that he was always at risk of sailing right under it when it came time to start enacting the “Change we can believe in”.

Indeed, back in 2008 there were times when it seemed his strategists took their cues from Napoleon Dynamite’s Pedro, as he essentially promised the electorate: “vote for me and all your wildest dreams will come true”.

In the nearly three years since he took office, he has made some important steps – passing a (slightly watered-down) health care package, most notably – but so many of his promises have gone unfulfilled and, although it pains me deeply to say it, his presidency thus far has been a bit of a wet firecracker.

Continue reading "Can Obama win the election? Yes, he can. Maybe." »

What happened
On May 1, 2011, with 18 purposeful steps, US president Barack Obama approached a lectern placed in the East Room of The White House. His 10 minute speech began with the statement: “Good evening. Tonight, I can report to the American people, and the world, that the United States has conducted an operation that killed Osama bin Laden, the leader of al-Qaeda and a terrorist who is responsible for the murder of thousands of innocent men, women and children.”

The announcement followed a raid by Navy SEALS on a compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan, where bin Laden had been living, despite the widespread assumption that he was holed up in a cave or remote village in Afghanistan.

Bin Laden’s body was then taken to Afghanistan for identification, after which he was quickly buried at sea.

Continue reading "Biggest moments of 2011 #1 Osama sleeps with the fishes" »

In his 2011 State of the Union address, President Obama outlined his vision for an America powered by clean energy, traveling by High Speed Rail, and competing in global clean technology markets. Obama set out a clear principle: “[I]nstead of subsidising yesterday’s energy,” he implored, “let’s invest in tomorrow’s.”

Excellent idea Mr. President.

By choosing the future, not the past, President Obama has opened a fierce technology competition with China and Germany, to bring the cost of renewable energy down below gas, coal and nuclear.

Continue reading "Only fossils want to rely on old-school fuel" »

Before our necks had even cooled, the latest foreign dignitaries to hit Australia have got us all hot under the collar again.

Our Mary and her husband Prince Fred conquered Canberra yesterday, just as the Ba-rockstar President of the United States did last week and the Her Maj less than a month before.

Australians swoon when foreign royalty or might-as-well-be-royalty hit our shores. And over the past couple of months we’ve been swooning like 12-year-olds at a Justin Bieber concert.

Continue reading "We’re bloody average, but so are these foreign hot shots" »

When Barack Obama met the Australian Cabinet on Thursday morning, Julia Gillard introduced Peter Garrett as “a former rock star”.

The president, who had obviously never heard of Midnight Oil or its bald front man, broke into a big grin.

“Most of us end up in politics because we fail to become rock stars,” he said

Continue reading "When Barack ‘Rockstar’ Obama came to town" »

There were two people at Wednesday’s state dinner for US President Barack Obama at Parliament House who seemed a bit out of sorts. The first was the man who until recently had looked like our de facto prime minister, Greens Leader Senator Bob Brown. The second was our alternative prime minister, Opposition Leader Tony Abbott, who in the past fortnight has gone from being a dead-cert for PM to being the subject of criticism from conservatives about an election strategy based more on opposing things than proposing things.

As President Obama stood at the end of Parliament’s Great Hall in front of that remarkable tapestry of the Australian bush landscape, hand on his heart as The Star Spangled Banner played, Bob Brown grudgingly lifted himself from his seat to join in the standing ovation. Brown, the man who had shouted across the parliamentary chamber at Bill Clinton on his 1997 Australian visit, was up on his pegs and deferring to the Leader of the Free World, a man who represents pretty much everything Brown loathes.

The symbolism of it was one thing. Of more interest is the enormous and important policy shifts in defence and regional security which Prime Minister Gillard and President Obama have presided over this past fortnight which have helped Labor put some long-overdue distance between itself and its partner in power.

Continue reading "Bob and Tony’s awkward night with Obama" »

Dear Mr Obama,

Thanks heaps for your beaut speech to Parliament this week, in which you used heaps of Australian idioms and that. It was beaut.

Our prime minister looked at you like she dead set wanted to pash you, and our Opposition leader said something about being a fellow English speaker, which is a bloody riot, because seriously mate, have you heard us?

Anyway, as you’ll see if you go to any twenty-firsts or footy dinners while you’re here, we tend to do this right-of-reply dealio whenever anyone dings on a glass and makes a speech, so I thought I’d respond and stuff. Sweet as?

Continue reading "Oi Barry! Leave the money on the fridge, would ya?" »

Power, Chairman Mao once observed, grows from the barrel of a gun. For incumbent PM, Julia Gillard, it arrived this week aboard Air Force One.

And what a show it was. MPs and senators filing out of the House of Representatives following Barack Obama’s Thursday morning speech were charged up - to put it mildly.

“That was amazing,” one was overheard enthusing to another, “he’s brilliant”. “What a great experience,” the other replied as they lined up for a coffee afterwards.  These were not Labor MPs mind, but Liberals.

Continue reading "Churlish Abbott not ready to play with the big kids" »

When the US Marine Corp establish themselves a new home in Darwin, they will bring some seriously green equipment and ideas to our shores. This is because in the three years of his Presidency, Barack Obama has actively led the US Department of Defense to embrace renewable energy and a strategic awareness of climate change.

The officer in charge of greening the marines is Colonel Bob ‘Brutus’ Charette, a career soldier. As Director of E2O, the Expeditionary Energy Office, Colonel Charette has been on the road in 2011 with a fascinating presentation that shows how seriously America’s defense force is fighting its fatal addiction to oil.

The Colonel jokes that when his commander told him to establish the E2O he said that his only qualification is wasting energy, as a jet pilot and commander.

Continue reading "Mean, green, American fighting machines" »

If you want to keep tabs on all the Obama action throughout the day, you can’t beat this live blog by Chris Paine over at News.com.au.

The eventual deployment of 2500 Marines in the Northern Territory, weather permitting, is not a massive military investment but it is designed to send a substantial message.

And the message is that as global power moves from the Atlantic to Asia, the United States intends to move with it.

And Australia will continue to be aligned with the US, even as its economic and cultural gears mesh more evenly and frequently with those of its regional neighbours.

Continue reading "Gillard and Obama: US forces given the nod" »

US President Obama and Russian President Medvedev will attend the sixth East Asia Summit in Bali this Saturday, November 19.  This historic development will make the East Asia Summit one of the world’s most important leadership forums.  It will also be another signal of a continuing global power shift that will make the 21st century the Asian Century.

US and Russian participation in the East Asia Summit represents an extraordinary achievement for an Asian integration process initiated by (originally 6, now 10) ASEAN countries during the Cold War. US military primacy will continue for at least for the first half of the 21st century, highlighting the importance for Australia of the ANZUS alliance.

President Obama will celebrate the 60th anniversary of ANZUS this morning in a speech to a joint sitting of the Australian Parliament. The ANZUS alliance protects Australia with US nuclear deterrence capability that is likely to remain an effective deterrent of military adventurism by a ‘rising’ China.

Continue reading "Australia farewells Obama, welcomes Asian Century" »

If you thought young Australians were only ecstatic while listening to LMFAO at Stereosonic while chugging overpriced bottled water, think again.

A News.com.au survey has found that more than half of Australians under 35 are happy or ecstatic that Obama is here. Ecstatic!

Well, that may be true on Sydney’s glittering beaches, in the delicatessen queue at Prahan Market or on the broad and leafy streets of Burnside, but you know where it’s not true? At the Occupy Adelaide protest.

Continue reading "Not everyone has the Obamarama spirit" »

I’m a young, Caucasian, university-educated male. Like many who match that description, I have a longstanding man-crush on the President of the United States, due to arrive in Canberra this afternoon.

It’s not just because Barack Obama is such a cool cat. It’s not just because of those 2008 YouTube videos of good-looking ladies singing about how excellent His Excellency is. It’s not even really because of his policies, some of which are spot-on and others, questionable.

I’ve got a man-crush on Obama for an old-fashioned reason. He can spin a story that’s at times, enchanting. He can tell compelling yarns with Hollywood-style blockbuster special effects.

Continue reading "Tell a good story, Barack, or you’ll end up like Our Kevin" »

George W Bush called John Howard the “man of steel”, invited him home to his Texas ranch, and gave him a quasi-royal reception at the White House. But he never kissed him on the cheek.

Barack Obama will deliver a peck to Julia Gillard when he arrives in Australia on Wednesday, and also will bestow the greatest gift an American president can offer a Prime Minister – proximity to his power.

It’s one of those significant indicators of transitions in global influence. Once Australian PMs hiked it to London to ramp up their status by being seen at Downing St and Buckingham Palace. Now it’s the Oval Office, and soon it might be the Great Hall of the People in Beijing.

Continue reading "Lickspittles, the president’s shoes demand your saliva" »

Mixing with the great and powerful on the international stage does not always give Australian prime ministers a boost in their domestic standing.

Hosting President George W. Bush and a string of other world leaders at the APEC summit just before the 2007 election did nothing to help John Howard with Australian voters.

But Labor strategists are pretty confident that next week’s visit by Barack Obama will be a positive for Julia Gillard.

Continue reading "Obama will help Gillard look positively prime ministerial" »

When governments find themselves in a corner there are two things they will do in a bid to turn things around - try to spend their way out of trouble and buy votes, or resort to cheap populism.

John Howard might be one of the greatest conservative PMs Australia ever had but he spent his way out of trouble at the 2001 and 2004 elections with billions and billions in outlays for families and the aged, much to the anger of his Treasurer Peter Costello who regarded Howard’s tactics as profligate and reckless.

When Mark Latham was making headway ahead of the 2004 poll with his populist call for an end to the MPs’ super gravy train, Howard stunned colleagues by simply copying Latham’s policy to neutralise the Labor leader’s surge. It was one of the few times Howard was ever confronted aggressively inside his cabinet, with foreign minister Alexander Downer denouncing the PM for caving in.

Continue reading "Tax forum: Game changer or top notch gabfest?" »

Kevin Rudd’s head is entitled to have swollen a fair bit recently. All week newspaper frontpages have been telling him how magnificent he is and how not-magnificent the current PM is. But just as magnificent as Rudd’s approval ratings is the gaffe (or perhaps, Freudian slip) he made this morning.

Kevin747 had just landed back home, shoulders sore after rubbing them against UN boffins all week in New York, when he said during an interview with a regional radio station that he was a “very happy little vegemite being Prime Minister - being Foreign Minister of Australia”.

It’s a ruddy spectacular slip, especially considering the leadership speculation kerfuffle of the past month. To commemorate such a brilliant verbal stuff-up, The Punch presents a few of the more embarrassing or just plain unfortunate conversational cock-ups of recent times.

Continue reading "A Ruddy spectacular compendium of gaffes" »

UPDATE: US President Barack Obama has announced that a deal has been signed to raise the debt ceiling, saying “the leaders of both parties… have reached an agreement that will reduce the deficit and avoid default”.

The gods are angry in Asgard. Odin is hurling thunderbolts at Balder. Balder is whirling his two-handed berserker sword. Puny earthlings are trampled underfoot. And this is before Götterdämmerung on August 2, when the US financial system threatens to collapse, taking the world with it in a vortex of fire and ruin.

You know, I’m just a wee bit weary of the American penchant for transforming their politicians into gods and goddesses. Think I’m exaggerating? Check out the August edition of Esquire magazine, where Obama is put forward as a kind of spiritual deity.

Continue reading "Great rhetoric doesn’t make a great leader" »

The US debt crisis has raised some very serious questions, and the answers floating around range from crazy to impenetrable. So we talked to Scott Pape, The Barefoot Investor, to shed some light on what’s going on.

Q. How the HELL did the US get into this mess?

A. Even though it’s the biggest economy on the planet, and it’s a really complex beast, they got to this point the same way that Tom from Townsville’s credit card got out of control – the US Government consistently spent more than they made.

And now they’re broke – and like Tom, that means they can’t pay for the basics.

Continue reading "The US debt crisis explained" »

Contemplating the US debt is akin to contemplating the infinite universe. It’s awesome (in the proper sense), mind blowing, and rather difficult to properly understand. US President Barack Obama has pleaded with Congress today to raise the debt ceilling to stop the economy unravelling.

Here at The Punch we were trying to get our heads around what it all means. There’s an entertaining and slightly frightening piece over here at news.com.au, on the ten things you need to know about why the debt ceiling matters.

It mentions the intriguing idea that Treasury could make a $1 trillion coin and deposit it. And somehow that would help. Or not.

Continue reading "So we understand the US has a slight cash flow problem…" »

Just as it sinks in here that an election is two full years away, the political circus that is American politics is sending in the clowns and pegging out its big-top for another round of primary races.

As it does so, one sobering factoid for the Obama administration is that no president in the modern era has been re-elected with an unemployment rate above 7.5 per cent. Which is just another way of saying Bill Clinton famous maxim, “it’s the economy stupid’‘.

Yet here in Australia, it ain’t just the economy.

Continue reading "Obama and Gillard defy the theory of voternomics" »

What a strange mob we’ve become, we in the ‘Western world’. On holidays in Europe the past few weeks I found I myself with a few days to fill in and began to watch a bit too much Western TV coverage of the biggest story in roughly nine and a half years - the death of bin Laden.

It got me down more with each passing hour. If the USA and its President thought to earn the world’s gratitude and praise for this astonishing operation, they must have been scratching their heads.

Let’s see, the cave dwelling, messianic mass murderer and his animal cronies declared war on America (and the rest of us in the ‘West’  while they were at it).  They did it formally, with an announcement on TV - and a press release for all I know.

Continue reading "Osama a victim of aggression: you’re kidding, right?" »

American special forces not only assassinated Osama bin Laden in their precision strike on Abbottabad. They also shot holes in Pakistan’s status as a credible and trustworthy ally in the fight against terrorism.

With the now-famous words “Geronimo EKIA”, the USA’s elite SEAL Team Six gave President Barack Obama the solution to a problem that had dogged the world’s major military power for close to a decade.

However, the success of the clandestine raid also handed Obama a new dilemma which may remain with the United States for an equally long period – the question of whether it can trust Pakistan as an ally in the fight against terrorism.

Continue reading "Pakistan has a long history of supporting terrorist groups" »

It’s unlikely John Howard will apologise, but he should at least feel deeply embarrassed.

Al Qaeda would be praying that Barack Obama became US president, Howard said in February 2007. 

The comment—an obvious diplomatic gaffe then—looks particularly stupid now.

Continue reading "We officially don’t know what happens post-bin Laden" »

Was it a hit squad? The Americans’ codename for Osama Bin Laden was Geronimo. Geronimo was the Apache leader who was pursued, captured, became a sideshow attraction and lived out his days on a reservation.

No one wanted bin Laden to become a sideshow. The White House says that they would have captured bin Laden if they could, but that he offered resistance.

Of a choice between capture or kill, kill was always preferable.

Continue reading "Bin Laden: From hide and seek to show and tell" »

Now that Osama sleeps with the fishes, the world inevitably turns its attention to what comes next. We’ll tell you what comes next. The jokes, that’s what. In fact, they’re already here.

We’re not dancing on anyone’s grave. We’re just faithfully reporting, in the old impartial style of reporters of yesteryear, the great mirth outbreak around the world in the wake of Osama bin Laden’s very timely demise.

Normally, there’s a cycle with this kind of stuff. It goes: death, shock, respectful pause, joke outbreak. Not this time. Yesterday it was more like: “hey, shame they had to kill Osama. A much better punishment would have been to capture him alive and make him go through airport security for the rest of his life!” Boom, tish!

Continue reading "Rifling through a bin laden with comic gold" »

The ‘world’s most wanted man’, Osama bin Laden is dead. For all the latest news, see www.news.com.au. For an analysis of what it means, here is what Matthew Gray, ANU expert in Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies, had to say.

This is a symbolic victory, and there’s considerable satisfaction for those who wanted revenge. I’m not sure it’ll have that much operational or strategic impact on Al Qaeda, though.

Osama was not, as far as I can tell, doing much direct operational work or strategic stuff beyond setting vague directions as to where the Al Qaeda ‘brand name’ might go from here – Al Qaeda is now a set of like-minded groups in different parts of the world.

Continue reading "Bin Laden: Some questions answered, many remain" »

They say there’s no such thing as a silly question - but sometimes it can be silly to answer one.

US President Barack Obama has finally put to rest to the allegations he wasn’t born in the United States (and would therefore be ineligible to be president) by releasing his long form birth certificate.

The conspiracy theories of the “birthers” have been dogging the political campaign for what seems like forever. Led by tycoon-turned-candidate Donald Trump they had finally reached a level where the president felt he had to respond.

Continue reading "The evil genius of Donald ‘the Birther’ Trump" »

President Obama’s attack on high-stakes, standardised tests, like Australia’s National Assessment Program Literacy and Numeracy (NAPLAN), proves once again that Australian policy makers and educrats are championing failed educational experiments at the very time they are being ditched overseas.

It’s no secret that Australia’s national literacy and numeracy tests at years 3, 5, 7 and 9, and the policy of making individual school results public on the My School website, are copied from the US and, to a lesser extent, England.

Such is Julia Gillard’s infatuation with the US model of testing and accountability that she invited the New York Education Chancellor, Joel Klein, to Australia and justified NAPLAN and My School on the success of the New York model.

Continue reading "Gillard’s best mate Obama is no rap for NAPLAN" »

A pair of sixty-oners they may be but two things Julia Gillard and US President, Barack Obama definitely do not share are: a love of Vegemite, and an understanding of Australian rules football.

Or perhaps that should be an understanding of Vegemite, and a love of Australian rules.

Either way, both came to the fore yesterday as one 49 year old ribbed the other for nearly busting a valuable Oval Office statue of an American icon and beloved saviour of the Union, Abraham Lincoln.

Continue reading "Obama delivers Gillard a handball in the Oval Office" »

On Tuesday we published this piece by columnist Andrew Bolt. It criticised some on the left in the United States, and Australia, for blaming the rhetoric of Alaskan Governor Sarah Palin for the massacre in Tuscon Arizona that killed six people and left Democratic Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords in a critical condition.

The issue of whether right wing rhetoric played a part in the shootings generated considerable heated discussion on The Punch, as it has throughout the United States. Today Governor Palin has responded in a video (above), attacking her critics for attempting to manufacture a “blood libel” against her:

“Acts of monstrous criminality stand on their own. They begin and end with the criminals who commit them, not collectively with all the citizens of a state, not with those who listen to talk radio, not with maps of swing districts used by both sides of the aisle, not with law-abiding citizens who respectfully exercise their First Amendment rights at campaign rallies.”

“Especially within hours of a tragedy unfolding, journalists and pundits should not manufacture a blood libel that serves only to incite the very hatred and violence that they purport to condemn. That is reprehensible.”

Continue reading "Palin and Obama respond to Arizona shootings" »

The Prime Minister has now spent more time overseas than her predecessor ‘Kevin747’ did in the same period.

Partly a product of timing – the end of the year begs attendance at a number of multilateral forums – she has visited the troops in Afghanistan; lobbied for the World Cup in Switzerland; conducted bilateral visits to both Malaysia and Indonesia; and attended the Asia-Europe Meeting in Brussels, the East Asian Summit in Vietnam, the G20 in South Korea and the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation in Japan.

Gillard’s latest trip was to Portugal for a NATO meeting on Afghanistan spending by her calculation “fifty-five hours in the air for eighteen on the ground”.

Reflecting earlier this month in Japan on her travels before flying overnight back home for Parliament she said, “There are a few moments when you would have to say it has been a bit slow but overwhelming it has been a good experience”. But just how she has been doing out there on the world stage depends on which audience you speak to.

Continue reading "Gillard’s doing just fine on the world stage" »

The parallels between US politics and ours provide interesting lessons.

Just as we saw an historic swing against a one-term Labor government here in August, the US mid-term election last week saw a stunningly massive swing away from Obama’s Democrats that has the conservative Republicans gaining control of the House of Representatives.

Just a year ago both parties had immensely popular figureheads, in Rudd and Obama, who had been swept into office on a wave of symbolic rhetoric and grandiose promises. Granted, Rudd didn’t quite top Obama’s assertion that he would stop the seas rising, but he came close.

Continue reading "What Gillard could learn from Obama’s mistakes" »

It is tempting to see parallels between federal Labor’s flat-lining election result and the drubbing Barack Obama’s Democratic Party received at this week’s mid-term elections.

But much of the skin Obama lost came from doing difficult things in his first two years whereas Labor’s collapse came from ducking them.

The Democratic Party lost 52 seats in Bill Clinton’s first term. The Republicans went backwards by 26 House seats under Ronald Reagan; by eight under George H W Bush (the father); and by 30 in George W’s second term. But all of these were dwarfed by the shellacking handed out to Democrats under presidents FDR and Harry S Truman who lost seats at the rate of 71 in his middle term (he had three of them) and 45 respectively. All were re-elected.

Continue reading "Obama copped it for too much, Gillard for too little" »

In the bottom of one of my drawers at home I’ve got this really cool grey T-shirt with a picture of Barack Obama and the words “Obama for yo Mama” written on it.

We’ll actually it’s not that cool anymore, which is why it’s now in the bottom of the drawer.

I never had a Kevin ’07 T-shirt but you can bet there are a lot of those sitting in cardboard boxes and stuffed in the back of cupboards these days too, destined for use only when washing the car or cleaning the bathroom.

Continue reading "We all pay for Obama killing off inspiration politics" »

What’s wrong with this picture?

Hint: it’s something on the stage and we’re not talking about the President’s pants.

The man who led one of the greatest campaigns in the history of western politics has resorted to this? Oh well, at least at the rally he was jamming on some other themes, such as: “Buck up, Democrats”. You can read about it here, here and here.

A year ago Barack Obama declared himself the first ‘Pacific President’ but so far his engagement with the region leaves a lot to be desired.

President Obama hosted the second US-ASEAN Summit in New York on Friday. Many are hopeful the insubstantial two-hour lunch meeting on the sidelines of the UN will signal a turning point in the Obama Administration’s approach to Asia.

So far the President has visited Europe six times and Asia only once. His European adventures have included spruiking a hometown Olympic bid and accepting the Nobel Peace Prize with one hand while saluting off more troops into harm’s way with the other. While some of his trips across the Atlantic have taken him to important gatherings of the G20 and NATO, declaring war on nuclear arms along the way, it is Asia – not Europe – that should be centre of the world’s attention right now.

Continue reading "Obama the Pacific President? Not so much" »

The timing is a co-incidence but it’s a terrible spectacle nonetheless.

As we’re bringing another three Australian Diggers home in coffins from Afghanistan, and increasing our civilian presence there, the man in charge of the allied military efforts has been dragged back to Washington because of something he said to a Rolling Stone journalist.

I’m not sure who comes out of this looking worse, President Obama or his General Stanley McChrystal.

Continue reading "Is the Afghan war in the hands of cowboys?" »

Update 2.10pm: Reuters is reporting White House sources have confirmed President Obama’s trip to Australia and Indonesia has been canceled.

Confusion still reigns among politicians, diplomats and police in Canberra as to whether US President Barack Obama will in fact pay a visit to Australia in mid-June, with US officials now seriously doubting whether the President will show.

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The itinerary is all but locked in. The Punch understands President Obama is set to arrive on the 17th of June with his family, on the 18th to meet with Kevin Rudd the Governor General possibly the cabinet and Tony Abbott, followed by an address to a special sitting of Parliament. A trip to Sydney to see the sites is apparently planned for Saturday the 19th.

The Australian Federal Police are ready. Sources close to the AFP say preparations for President Obama’s visit are in full swing, with police being told to cancel leave and reorganise shifts to ensure everybody will be working ahead of and during the visit. The ACT police are said to be “devoting their full resources” over the period of the 17th and 18th of June.

Continue reading "Will we or won’t we be hailing the chief?" »

There’s a very thin line in picking winners at the horse races and on political election days, and the Americans must be eternally grateful Sarah Palin never did become that heartbeat away from the world’s top job.

Well some Americans, anyway.

Since Barack Obama was handed the keys to the White House, red neck America has been in full flight – not only is the President a Democrat, he’s a black Democrat. Let’s have a Tea Party, um, party, and see what we can do, cried the masses.

Continue reading "Sarah Palin: What almost happened was no game" »

American authorities have charged Wall Street mammoth Goldman Sachs with fraud. British and German authorities want to know more, too.

President Obama is promising to toughen banking regulations.  These include shining a light on the murky world of derivatives, the inter-twined financial products so complicated they almost brought the whole system down. 

More consumer protection is promised, too, particularly on the credit card front.

Continue reading "What do you mean there’s a global financial crisis?" »

The bizarre behaviour of Young Liberal National Party Nick Sowden in calling Barack Obama a monkey underscores one point pretty well: how out of touch a lot of people in the Young Liberals are.

For all the outrage around Sowden’s comments on Twitter last night, the broader point beyond a university student doing something stupid, is what it says about this disproportionately powerful group.

Sowden gave a radio interview today in which he defended his behaviour, drawing on the famous Sandilands defence: I was taken out of context.

Continue reading "If you needed reminding young Libs were out of touch" »

Nuclear warfare isn’t as popular as it used to be. There was a time when it was on everybody’s lips, from the cheery family man stocking up a bomb shelter to fresh-faced children learning to crouch under desks.

That old-fashioned pine was the best defence against hydrogen bombs was a bone of contention between engineers and education departments for years.

The Cold War was a time when the world was an uncomplicated place. Red was bad.  Smoking was good.

Continue reading "How to start worrying and love disarmament" »

White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs gave a lesson in how to manage a potential blow-up yesterday with one little Tweet.

As you might have heard, US Vice President Joe Biden got caught by an open mike after introducing President Barack Obama, who was about to announce the passage of his historic health care reforms.

“This is a big f—-ing deal,” the gaff-prone VP said in the President’s ear, loud enough to be audible on television. Gibbs’s Tweet? “And yes Mr. Vice President, you’re right…”

Continue reading "Sometimes things are a big (swearword of choice) deal" »

President Obama has now delayed his trip to Australia until June. My bet is that he will visit sometime after the 12th when his daughters finish school, but before the 25th when the G8 and G20 meet in Canada. You heard it here first.

President Obama is quickly developing a reputation as a bad guest in Asia.

Despite all the pronouncements that he is the first “Pacific President”, he hardly has much to show for it. In 2009, he visited Europe five times and Asia once.

Continue reading "Obama’s trip will now be a holiday of sorts" »

As excuses go, “I’m sorry I’m undertaking one of the biggest policy reforms in American history” is a pretty good one. In contrast to “I’m washing my hair” or “I’ve got a bit of a headache” it has the added benefit of being checkable.

Look at any US news website or TV station and there’s our date for next Friday in the fight of his life. It’s OK, Barack. We can reschedule. Meet you at the same place, next to New Zealand. Hey, maybe now we get to spend more than 24 hours together.

Australian politicians can stop worrying about what they were going to wear and rehearsing what they were going to say to make a good first impression. And now that it’s likely the US President will visit in June instead, he might be able to bring the family. His daughters Malia and Sasha will be on school holidays.

Continue reading "Obama stands up Australia" »

Next month the American Presidency comes to Australia.

For all that is written about the American Presidency one of the aspects which is most intriguing is that its history can be condensed into the lives of four people: three who are known, one to be identified. Each person knew the next in line and together they may have known all 44 Presidents from Washington to Obama.

John Quincy Adams, the eldest son of America’s second President – John Adams, led a truly remarkable life.

Continue reading "The American Presidency: four degrees of separation" »

No doubt there will be swooning all round when President Barack Obama descends upon Australia next month for his first official visit “Down Under” since coming to office just over a year ago.

While the precise details of his itinerary are understandably a closely guarded secret there can be no such mystery as to what the reaction of much of the local media will be.

Breathless comparisons with the charismatic US leader and his young family to the photogenic heyday of Camelot are sure to be exceeded only by gushing commentary of his wife, Michelle Obama. And given our sunny climes are more accommodating of sleeveless gowns than chilly Washington DC, fashion observers might just be rewarded with a glimpse of the First Lady baring those famed biceps.

Continue reading "Hillary and Barack: a love story" »

You may not have time to watch this whole interview between Jon Stewart and Bill O’Reilly but it’s worth a look if you get the chance.

Whether you’re actually interested in US politics or media or not, it’s a fascinating and civil exchange between two men who are arguably the two most influential commentators in America (assuming you take Oprah out of the equation).

One is a political satirist turned sometime serious political commentator and the other is political commentator who sometimes sounds pretty funny.

Continue reading "O’Reilly and Stewart: two sides of the same dime" »

Lefties and other decent folk are wetting their pants at the prospect of that beacon of excellence Barack Obama and his telegenic family visiting our shores next month.

Since coming onto the public radar, Obama has achieved pop-star status as the great hope for our shared dreams of equality.

But is this really what he represents?

Continue reading "If minorities want equality, don’t look at the Obamas" »

US President Barack Obama will visit Australia in March.

The White House has just confirmed a rumour that has been circulating in Queensland since last November.

President Obama’ visit will commemorate the 70th anniversary of formal diplomatic relations between the US and Australia and there is mounting evidence that the visit will feature Queensland prominently being the home state of Prime Minister Rudd. 

Continue reading "Queensland to get large share of Obama sunshine" »

The US Democratic Party is bewildered and spooked. One year after Barack Obama’s inauguration, a political asteroid struck yesterday, imperilling the road ahead for the President’s agenda, including his cherished healthcare reforms.

That Obama’s party could lose a Senate race in the liberal-left bastion of Massachusetts is proof that political hell has officially frozen over.

Republicans last held the seat in 1972. But to lose in a special election triggered by the death of Ted Kennedy?

Continue reading "Senate upset will teach us a lot about Barack Obama" »

UPDATE 2pm: It’s an epic upset and a disaster for Barack Obama and the Democrats: Republican candidate Scott Brown has won the Massachusetts Senate seat previously held by Ted Kennedy.

Jon Stewart on The Daily Show provides his customarily hilarious but incisive overview on an astonishing upset looming in the US: that the Democrats are in danger of losing the Massachusetts Senate seat held by Ted Kennedy. This would change the arithmetic in the Senate and possibly derail Barack Obama’s healthcare reform. Some links to more reading below; enjoy the clip.

There’s a wrap from Fox News here. George Stephanopoulos of America’s ABC News has called it the potential “upset of the century”. And there’s local coverage from the Boston Globe here.

In January 2005 the public was still reeling from the devastation of the 2004 Boxing Day tsunami when the beginning of the end for Mark Latham took place.

The then-Opposition Leader refused to break his summer holiday to put out a statement about the horrific event - he wouldn’t even return the calls of the then acting leader Senator Chris Evans (deputy Labor leader Jenny Macklin was also on leave). It turned out Latham was sick, of the pancreas and of politics, and he disappeared off into the Western Sydney sunset.

At the time it seemed inexplicable that someone wouldn’t halt their vacation for an hour or two to deal with a crisis of such enormity. But perhaps Mark Latham was a work life balance visionary.

Continue reading "We all need holidays, even Presidents" »

Barack Obama craves a historic presidency. Witness his pledge to single-handedly rescue the US health system in which millions lack insurance coverage. “I am not the first president to take up this cause, but I am determined to be the last,” he announced in September.

Now, following a crucial Christmas Eve vote in the US Senate, the Democratic-controlled Congress is about to approve a major healthcare package.

Hurdles remain: the two houses must still confer to iron out differences. Public financing of abortion remains a flashpoint. But the near-certain outcome, sometime in January, is a bill on the president’s desk.

Continue reading "Is Obama digging his own grave on healthcare?" »

He is the Elvis memorabilia collecting international law expert who is now Obama’s man in Australia. New US Ambassador to Australia Jeffrey Bleich spoke to The Punch’s Leo Shanahan at his residence in Canberra last week about his relationship with Barack Obama, climate change, Afghanistan and his most prized possessions.

As a talented lawyer, Clinton administration advisor and long-time friend of Barack Obama Jeffrey Bleich knew he wanted an opportunity to serve in the Obama’s White House, but initially neither Bleich nor the President could decide on a job title or what it was he would be doing.

“So I asked the President what I would be doing and he said ‘well let’s just call it Special Counsel to the President.’ So I became special counsel to the President.” 

Continue reading "A Punch chat with Obama’s man in Oz Jeffrey Bleich" »

While Kevin Rudd desperately reschedules his attendance at the Copenhagen Summit in a craven attempt to ensure he’s in the presence of US President Barack Obama, there are very interesting parallels in the political scenarios on either side of the Pacific.

These are two political leaders elected in almost Messiah-style euphoria.

Their elevation was supposed to ring in “change” after long periods of conservative Government that the elites and media had openly grown to loathe.  There was little public scrutiny of the substantive skills each man would bring to the job – their popularity was a triumph of style over substance.

Continue reading "The mirror ‘Messiahs’ dogged by bad policy" »

Jeff Greenfield, CBS News Senior Political Correspondent once quipped that more things in politics happen by accident or exhaustion than happen by conspiracy.

Inarguably his four decades of experience - which includes time as a speechwriter for Robert F. Kennedy - enable him to make such informed statements, but as the son of a politician I will venture that if it wasn’t for John Della Bosca’s sex antics and the occasional fantastically implausible conspiracy theory, politics would be as boring as bat guano.

Conspiracy theories have been a popular part of Western politics since 10.15pm on April 14, 1865 when John Wilkes Booth walked into Ford’s Theatre and assassinated Abraham Lincoln. Immediately after Lincoln’s assassination questions arose. Was Booth solely responsible or was he someone’s hired gun, and if so, whose?

Continue reading "The alien war, Moon-bombing peace prize ‘cover-up’" »

“It’s not April 1st, is it?” asked a White House aide when told that his boss, Barack Obama, had won the Nobel Peace Prize.

Well it’s not a joke but the award to the US President is easily the most controversial laureate in living memory. Remember some of the others who have won this: Nelson Mandela and F.W. de Clerk for ending apartheid; Mikhail Gorbachev for bringing an end to the Cold War; John Hume and David Trimble for helping bring peace to Northern Ireland.

Oh, and there’s also Mother Theresa and the Dalai Lama.

Continue reading "They give out prizes for a politician’s promise now?" »

In news just in: Kevin Rudd’s been in an incident in New York involving a shower and a delegation from New Zealand. Apparently it also had something to do with a horse.

Things are definitely hotting up for the PM in the United States. As I write this Mr Rudd is addressing the United Nations General Assembly about his plan for world domination. There’s a lot of talk of a “grand bargain.”

In a brief moment of lucidity during his address Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi appeared to endorse KRudd’s ambitions for the UN Security Council to be expanded.

Continue reading "Who needs Scores when you’ve got the UN" »

You’ve got to hand it to those Americans. For them, there is much more to democracy than theory. It’s there to be practised and even better if it can be done in the streets.

A now-ageing generation took democracy to the streets and forced the politicians to bring an unpopular war in Vietnam to an end. And against the odds they changed America and world history campaigning for civil rights laws that paved the way for a black American president.

And though small in number by comparison, those freedom-of-speech loving Americans were back in Washington streets at the weekend to protest against the policies of that same black president.

Continue reading "America’s mastery of free speech, even for maniacs" »

In an effort to regain the momentum on health care reform, President Barack Obama gave a very good speech to the Congress yesterday.

I liked three aspects of it in particular. First, it had passion. Obama made the moral case for universal health care that liberals have been waiting for. He quoted a letter from the late Senator Ted Kennedy that asserted that health care goes to ‘the character of our country’.  The president’s remarks contained good lines and moving stories, including that of the Illinois man who lost his health insurance coverage during chemotherapy because he hadn’t reported gallstones that he hadn’t known about. It is remarkable that the most powerful country in the world is also the only advanced democracy to leave so many citizens uninsured.

Second, the speech showed strength. My principal criticism of Obama’s presidency so far has been his unwillingness to wade into debates, whether domestic or international, and use leverage and pressure to enforce his will.

Continue reading "Yes he can: Obama claims middle ground on health" »

The alliance between Australia and the United States is currently being managed by a Labor prime minister and a Democratic president – a situation that has not existed since the period 1993-1996, under Paul Keating and Bill Clinton.

The relationship between John Howard and George Bush was famously close, however the replacement of these two leaders by Kevin Rudd and Barack Obama has turned out to good news for the alliance. Howard was wildly out of synch with the new Democratic rulers in Washington and his regrettable comment in February 2007 that Al-Qaeda in Iraq should pray for a victory by Obama and the Democrats might have presented us with real diplomatic difficulties had he been re-elected.

Bush’s retirement has also benefitted the alliance. It is good news for Australia when our strategic ally is well-liked around the world rather than disliked.

Continue reading "Kev and Obama’s friendship bolsters the Alliance" »

This poster depicting Barack Obama as the Dark Knight Joker is currently causing a stir in America and the rest of the world.

Debate on the subject has been raging online and in papers on what the poster means, from those claiming it shows a backlash against Barack Obama to arguments that it is a popularised racist attack on the President.

But perhaps what is most interesting about the poster is that we’re even surprised that people are now openly mocking the American President. The debate itself is probably an indication of how incredibly popular Obama still is.

Continue reading "Why are people so fascinated by the Obama Joker poster?" »

Imagine for a second that you had mastered the impersonation of some forgotten 1960s cartoon character - let’s say, for argument’s sake, it’s Elmer Fudd.

You try it out on your girlfriend, and she cracks up. She begs you to talk to her with your new voice all the time, even during the most intimate moments. For some reason, this seems to make her love you more.

After a few days of this, she cajoles you into ordering a meal at a restaurant using your cartoon voice, so you order the “woast wamb” for yourself and the “wemon chicken wiv wentiws” for her.

The waiter thinks it’s hilarious. You spend the rest of the evening receiving special treatment and leave without having to pay the bill.

At work, your colleagues stop by your desk just to hear you say, “my secwetawy is witing a wetter”.

Even a cop lets you off a speeding fine when you tell him, “But officer, I was wacing to catch a wascawy wabbit!”

Eventually you talk like Fudd all day.

Continue reading "Obama is no King, just a Fudd of a President" »

“Real transformative change never begins in Washington.” (Pause for quacks.)

You’ll need to turn up the volume but the quacking is audible early in the video.

Got a story about a mortifying mobile moment? Share it in the comments.

During my childhood, 1957 and 1958 were “the two good years,” the were the only years my working class redneck family ever caught a real break. And that break came because of organized labor. After working as a farm hand, driving a hicktown taxi part time, and a dozen catch as catch can jobs, my father found himself owning a used semi-truck and hauling produce for a Teamster unionized trucking company called Blue Goose.

Daddy was making more money than he’d ever made in his life, about $4,000 a year. The median national household income at the time was $5,000, mostly thanks to America’s unions. After years of moving from one rented dump to another, we bought a modest home, ($8,000) and felt like we might at last be getting some traction in achieving the so-called “American Dream.”

Continue reading "Workers must seize back the golden age for themselves" »

A review of the United States’ Waxman-Markey climate change bill by Australia’s Parliamentary Library has exposed some interesting facts on safeguarding industry.

Handed down on Monday, the parliamentary report on the US Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) says: “Industries with proportionally high import or export values are potentially fully shielded from the scheme until the majority (greater than 70 per cent) of global production in that sector is subject to emissions pricing.

“The (Waxman-Markey) bill allows for up to 100 per cent compensation for all direct and indirect costs to industries that are assessed as emissions intensive and trade exposed.”

Continue reading "ETS will cost jobs - just ask Barack Obama" »

Barack Obama is so Gen Y, even though he’s 47.

Just this week he was copping a grilling on American station CNBC about government economic intervention when he stopped for a second, eyed off an annoying fly, and obliterated it ninja-style. “Now, where were we?” he asks the interviewer. What a chiller.

Pan left for a second to Kevin Rudd, 51, who when put in a similar situation, pulls out the painful to watch sauce-bottle-shake chat in a desperate attempt to appear “with-it”. With added cringe-benefits.

Continue reading "Tips for pollies wishing to connect with Gen Y" »

Whatever. I want to see him do it with chopsticks like the Karate Kid.

Continue reading "Video: Obama swats, kills fly" »