Tomorrow is the beginning of the end, for someone. Jim, Warren, Julia or Tony? At this point, nobody seems sure. What we are all sure of though, is that this has been the most frustrating campaign for Australian voters in a very long while. It has been pretty much fact free, a bit of a hate campaign and not really useful for anyone wishing to know more about the people they will be voting for.
Warren is not the same man he was 3 years ago. Gone are the funky shirts and the colourful language. Replaced instead with boring stripes that just make him look more like a bullfrog than anything else, and he appears to be relying on 20 odd people that follow him around to provide the language and the courseness we used to expect from him. Perhaps it's an effort to make him look more stable than he was before but it's made him come off a bit old and used up to be honest.
Jim has always had a bit of a boring look, suits in dark colours and ties that made him look even weedier than he really is. He used to stutter and stammer his way through long boring speeches that we all tuned out to half-way through, or cringed our way through to the end. Now he is wearing the same outfit as Warren and thankfully he looks healthy doing it, but the pin stripes are boring the heck out of me. He has taken to wearing clothes that at least look like they weren't borrowed from Dad, so that's something at least.
Tony went from being a gross, uncouth, chauvanist of a man and somehow has come out smelling like the baby oil he smears on before donning speedos. I have little doubt that the frightening individual that made news for all the wrong reasons is just biding time and, if elected Prime Minister, the public will be in shock before long at the bizarre actions or vocalisations coming from the one they chose to represent them. There is no way that this could have occured at any other time in our recent history. At this point it is just mind-boggling what the media and the Liberal Party spin can do if they put their mind to it. Realistically, if they are this good at prettying up such a strange man for public consumption then perhaps if they win they won't completely suck at the job......(what am I saying, it's even working on me!!)
Julia is a woman, a redhead, a Welsh immigrant and has an annoying voice. She is childless, unmarried and has a big bum. How on earth is she a representative of us? We loved Julia though, we liked her gumption, her stance, her conviction. We liked her so much it surpassed our love of Kevin and she was awarded the top job. Immediately following that though, she changed her voice to modulate it better, started wearing navy to hide the big butt, went for the Anna Bligh bob instead of the shorter funky 'do' and started hugging babies and talking marriage. Now we don't like her so much. We liked the quirks, the oddities, the blinding hair. Now we have a softer, duller version of a once vibrant personality and we are switching off.
Let's take a real look at things though. Has the policy slant of Liberal changed? NO. Has the policy slant of Labor changed? NO. Have the local issues changed? NO. In fact, the only thing that has changed in any of this, is the packaging.
When you stand in the cubicle tomorrow, with the long sheet of paper in your hand, vote for policy, not personality. As we all now know, personalities change, all too often, but the basic premise stays the same. Good luck to all.
I've been loving your reports from the South Side Leigh!!
ReplyDeleteMike
Good comment there.
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