Cutting Mr Rudd Some Slack - But Not Much

ONE thing Kevin Rudd's trip abroad is showing conclusively is that he really is the egotistical opportunist many observers believed him to be even before he was elected Labor leader. This had already become plain domestically with his micro-management of others' portfolios, his apparent belief that he can solve longstanding problems with well-publicised gestures and his desire to personally attend to tasks better left to his Foreign Minister - like signing the failed Kyoto Protocol. It's called debasing the coinage: by greedily assuming personal stardom in every marquee assembly or powwow, Mr Rudd risks lowering the prestige of his office when failures do come, as inevitably they will. Would that Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth could give him some tips on strategic aloofness when they meet at Windsor Castle next week.

Andrew Bolt seems to think the Prime Minister has now been taught this lesson the hard way - or, rather, we have - in relation to European troop 'commitments' for Afghanistan. He may be right. John Howard and Alexander Downer pushed this matter hard but convincing the European 'multilateralists' to do what's morally right is becoming one of the depressing impossibilities of international relations. So much for Labor's baloney about how it was our Iraq War involvement that was shutting doors. Even so, the pressure Mr Rudd has exerted on the Europeans - backed up by defence Minister Joel Fitzgibbon - is itself welcome. The triumphalism isn't. As for that salute, it's not entirely trivial. Australian prime ministers do not salute anybody - not even members of the ADF - and certainly not leaders of other countries.