OZ election .com

What a weekend! After much debate, hoo-hah, media build-up and national obsession with the two leading players, the votes have been collected and counted. And the winner of this weekend’s national vote is… Natalie Gauci!!!

Aside from Australian Idol, however, there was another vote this weekend, and this one finished with a far more devastating whitewash. Kevin Rudd and the Australian Labor Party obliterated the John Howard and the Liberal Party of Australia. Nowhere was the defeat more evident than in the seat of Bennelong where, for one of the few times in history, a standing prime minister lost his seat.

John Howard missed out on retaining his long-standing seat of Bennelong to popular Labor upstart and former current affairs personality Maxine McKew. Unbelievably, this seat has never gone to Labor in the past, having been held by Liberal Sir John Cramer from its foundation in 1949 to 1974, when John Howard gained control of the seat. It was one of the safest Liberal seats in the country until the tide of poularity started to turn against Howard’s government.

So as we say goodbyeto Idol’s runner-up, Matt Corby, we also bid farewell to one of the longest and most illustrious political careers in this country’s history. With the benefit of time, John Howard will no doubt be remembered amongst the Liberal greats, but for now Australia seems to have had enough of his broken promises and controversial actions and inactions concerning defense, industrial relations, the environment and education.

Farewell Johnnie. We’ll miss those eyebrows.

Yikes!

With opinion polls already swinging widely in Labor’s favour at this weekend’s election, the last thing John Howard, Costello and co needed today was a scandal - unless it was aimed in the other direction. A scathing scandal is what they received, however, and all on the most significant of Howard’s final days of campaigning.

The new Kelly Gang may just have pounded a final nail in Howard’s political coffin, through the distribution of an ignorant and hateful piece of political propaganda into mailboxes of residences within a hard-fought western Sydney seat. Jackie Kelly currently holds the seat of Lindsay on behalf of the Liberal Party. Her husband was one of a small group of Liberal campaigners who are believed to have hand delivered a pamphlet portaining to link the district’s Labor candidate with Muslim terrorists, in a desperate attemp to swing undecided voters in the region towards supporting Liberal newcomer Karen Chijoff.

Only time will tell as to whether their expression of ignorance will tap into an undercurrent of suspicion and fear and therefore work in the Liberal Party’s favour, or whether this action - publicly denouced in strong terms by both Rudd and Howard - will serve to create a backlash against the ultra-conservatism projected by Liberal Party supporters in Lindsay.

What do you think? Has this tipped the scales irreversibly in Labor’s favour, or could this flyer serve to stir up enough fearful sentiment as to anti-intuitively work to assist Karen Chijoff?

In an election that, more than ever, seems to have been marketed towards Australia’s younger generations; given the importance played by policies on climate change, broadband penetration and education and on marketing through Web 2.0 online channels, it’s unusual that only one leader has been visible on youth-oriented media avenues this week.

Howard’s absence from national youth-oriented radio was conspicuous, as was his decision not to acknowledge invitations to appear on Network 10’s popular variety show, Rove. Part of the reason may have been his anticipation of Rove’s famous “20 Dollars in 20 Seconds” interview set, which traditionally ends with the question, “Who would you turn gay for?”

Kevin Rudd did make an appearance on the show, and clearly planned his response well in advance. The Rudd man considered Dame Edna for a moment - perhaps not realising she’s a classy country housewife and far too modest for such shenanigans. He then pondered the possibility of coupling with Kath & Kim’s Kjell Knight, for his “style, sophistication and unique power walk.” I’m not sure whether or not that was Fraud’s way of alluding to Rudd’s secret attraction to his power-walking nemesis, John Howard.

In the end, it appeared that Kjell Knight was already taken by fellow Rove guest, Jason Donovan. Given that, Rudd resigned to the safe answer by claiming that his wife, Terese, was the only one for him. Of course, Rove latched on to the awkward mystery created by that statement, by asking Kevin if that meant his wife was a man. In typically embarrassed fashion, Rudd only chuckled his non-response to that dig.

To even out the political balance, Rove compensated for Howard’s absence by subjecting Greens leader Bob Brown to the same set of questions. They weren’t such a political minefield for Brown, who is proudly gay, but Rove did his best by checking for whom Bob would turn straight. Fortunately, he had the sense not to give the same response as Kevin. Otherwise, they’d be battling for Terese’s affections, as well as the Prime Ministership this weekend.

Okay, okay, you’re quite right. We’re not above getting immature thrills from clips of people engaging in bizarre personal grooming practices. It was disturbingly amusing to see Paul Wolfowitz (the father of the Bush Administration’s invasion of Iraq) grotesquely licking him comb in preparation for a TV interview and there’s something voyeuristically satisfying about seeing the golden child of this election slipping up similarly.

You know about which clip we’re talking. It’s an international hit! Most Americans probably don’t even know the name of our current PM, but there’s a good chance that they know something about Kevin Rudd.

David Letterman and Jay Leno both gave the clip a flogging on their late night talk shows and it has just passed the 400,000 views mark on YouTube - proving it to be a bonafide classic as far as Aussie political clips are concerned. And now you get to enjoy it right here, right now.

See Kevin Rudd indulging in a little tasty ear wax now…and then be ashamed of yourself for being so curious.

Proving once again how much election campaigning has jumped aboard the Web 2.0 bandwagon this year, the Kevin07 website has been getting creative Aussies as involved as possible in the process of creating political point-grabbers. The latest few to appear on the Kevin07 website are rippers (and may even help to distract voters from thoughts of ear wax munching mishaps).

Here’s one that Hugh Atkin and Monty Taylor prepared earlier:

Everyone’s favourite croning crusader, Peter Garrett, did his best to add some spice to an otherwise dreary election campaign last week. Not content to let radio 2UE’s Steve Price think that this campaign is shaping up to be a “me too” effort; with Labor and Liberal leaders each snagging popular policy choices from the other, he boldly (or should that be ‘baldly’) let the nation know just how different the two parties really are at heart.

As it turns out, one party has a sense of humour. The other, desperate to claw back some popularity points, would rather take things a little too seriously…and you know how much we dislike serious politics around the Oz Election office.

When Price approached him with the “me too” proposition, Garrett responded by claiming that none of that matters because “once we get in, we’ll just change it all.” With that one ambiguous, tongue-in-cheek statement on record, it seems as though Mr Price and the Liberal Party could not have received a greater blessing. Showing that they are, too, capable of some creative thought, Garrett’s opposition decided to beat up their interpretation of the incident until it became a shuddering, election-changing media magnet. It was as though Rudd himself had claimed that the country would go commie after a Labor victory.

 Those of you who are based in Australia would no doubt have found this issue impossible to dodge in the mainstream media. For those who have been living overseas, or under a rock, during the past week, here’s a link to Price’s take on the encounter:

http://www.news.com.au/story/0,23599,22696103-5007146,00.html

So what do you all think? Did Garrett just pick the wrong audience for his attempt at making light of the “me too” suggestion, or could it be that “the Price is right”?