‘Mea Culpa’ – it’s latin for sympathy vote…
"I'm sure we'll take an even bigger whacking in the period ahead and the bottom line is I think we deserve it
We are taking a pounding because we haven't been up to the mark so far.
We are proud of what we have done on the economy last year in the face of everything happening around the world, but we are facing a different benchmark now
I think people are becoming disappointed at the pace of the delivery of the commitments that we have made
We ain't walking away from it one bit. There has been a delay and I've been blamed for that, criticised for that - fair cop."
What is he up to?
One could argue that he is apologizing to set himself up as an honest, straight shooting kind of guy.
Do you buy it? Because I certainly don't.
KRudd's contrived "apology" is as about as see through as a freshly Windexed windshield. It appears to me that he is appealing to the supposed "fair go" Aussie idiom and perhaps trying to become an underdog - and everyone loves an underdog!
In the era or active audiences (in contrast to the "passive" audiences of decades ago), the new generation of politic watchers and News viewers usually can read between the lines. Simply put - we have seen all the tricks before.
That said, it doesn't explain why KRudd would actually NEED to do this. Even though the two party preferred vote polls were showing a deceased gap the Labour party is still miles ahead. Perhaps it's due to the fact that KRudd can't gaurentee that there won't be anymore major screw ups between now and the next election, maybe he already knows one is coming.
I would hazard a guess that this "apology" of sorts is directed squarely at the older GenX and Baby Boomers, because as evident from an episode of Q&A a few weeks ago the youth, righfully, aren't as forgiving.
The young people of the audience clearly didn't buy the "GFC" as an excuse to allow health and education slip through the cracks.
As transparent as the PMs move is, as of this morning (02/03/10) it has worked. Overnight the PM has seen his approval ratings climb. The two party preferred polls still show Labour with a very strong lead.
Unfourtunatly, this has prompted an almost complete copycat performance from the Victorian Premier John Brumby:
"We've had a pretty ordinary run, that's the truth of the matter, to the extent that there have been delays, well, of course the responsibility for that rests with the government — rests with me as leader of the government."
Unlike KRudd, however, Brumby is actually in real trouble of being ousted later this year with Street Crime, Myki, Water and health plaging his term as Premier.
Brumby needs to start panicking (which means for us we will see an onslaught of "Policy on the Run") as he is running against Ted Baillieu - an absolute silver spoonfed toff, but a real threat to the leadership.
KRudd however has to compete with this:
That budgie must be cold.
I'm curious as to why the PM is apologizing.- Actually I know WHY, I'm confused as to WHY NOW?
-db
