Jilia Gillard

Yikes. Kevin Rudd has just quit as Foreign Minister. It is a spectacular escalation of the battle for the leadership which Rudd hopes will achieve two things – enhance his status as a martyr with the voters, and free him up to devote himself fully to the task of wresting back the prime ministership.

I quit

Tactically, Rudd has sensed Gillard’s hesitation about whether to discipline him, to dump him, to bring the issue to a head by calling a spill. She has been reluctant to do any of those things because she knows Rudd is already a figure of considerable sympathy with voters who believe he should not have been knocked off in the first place, and would much prefer him over Gillard as PM.

By sacking himself Rudd is trying to play the victim.

Latest 2 of 398 comments

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  • neveragain says:

    10:26am | 24/02/12

    petulant, cantankerous, self-obsessed, self-absorbed, narcissistic, egotistic, bully ... bad enough first time around Read more »

  • Pip says:

    10:19am | 24/02/12

    What has happened with the foreign meetings Rudd was supposed to be part of before tossed the towel? Did they get resolved? Did he cancel them? Are they still sitting there waiting? I thought he had a fairly heavy schedule. Read more »

 

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