Having gone through countless iterations over the past three years, Julia Gillard is almost out of personalities to morph into in her quest to hold onto the Prime Ministership that she clearly values above all else.
We saw and experienced the Real Julia™, when she noticed that the electorate was tired of the old Julia and needed something new to focus on. But that didn’t last long when people started to question if this was the “real” Julia, then who was the one beforehand?
We then endured the Concerned Julia™, when she bemoaned that a good government had lost its way under Kevin Rudd. Only for her own government to lose its own way in the polls, dropping to a point way below that where they got rid of Kevni’s own personal brand of dysfunctional megalomania.
We presently have the Bookish Schoolmarm Julia™, with her newly minted black rimmed glasses firmly planted on her nose, feverishly trying to exude an air of old fashioned strict authoritarianism in an effort to sway those lovely, yet oh so oppressed mummy bloggers of Sydney’s northern shores. Just love the pearls too, Julia.
Simultaneously, we have also seen the Fiesty Feminist Julia™, The One who will defend women throughout the world, to call misogyny out wherever and whenever she sees it. Except when it is standing there right next to her dressed as the Easter Bunny, posing for photos on her own mobile phone, like the universally loathed Kyle Sandilands did last week.
In another effort to recast the Gillard die, Mark Kenny this morning in the Sydney Morning Herald tries to argue that the new, new, new Julia is actually indestructible. Just like the T1000 in the Terminator 2.
Yep, you read that right. Gillard is now the Gillardinator – G1000 model™
Mark Kenny, in his infinite wisdom, has now compared Julia Gillard and her apparently “legendary” toughness to a homicidal, unflinching psychopathic robot that has no feelings, and no regard for anything other than its mission to kill things.
Mark, seriously mate, you need to stop drinking the Kool Aid and step out into the fresh air and take a very, very, very deep breath of reality.
I’ve already spoken about how Gillard’s “legendary” toughness can now be seen as her very own Achilles heel after a stable mate of Kenny’s at the SMH, Mark Butler, wrote just over a week ago that Gillard’s “legendary” toughness was her fatal flaw. Let us read what Butler can see that Kenny cannot, or will not.
But it is time to recognise that toughness not as a virtue but as a terrible flaw, an obstinacy that has encouraged Gillard to defy the harsh reality that her leadership has lost authority and that she is driving the Labor Party inexorably towards disaster.
Instead of seeing Gillard’s obstinacy as the driving force behind her inexorable march to the bottom of the political barrel, Kenny tries to valiantly ascribe a certain Churchillian quality to Gillard.
Perhaps Kenny is not quite sure what values Churchill’s great leadership was built on.
Steve Gray, a business development strategist, speaker and author of hundreds of articles on leadership, innovation, communication, marketing, management and people potential, argues in his own piece that the seven leadership qualities that Churchill exemplified were:
- Elegant and flexible communication.
- Coaching and mentoring.
- Resolving challenges, conflict, complaints and issues.
- Focus.
- Beliefs and values.
- Innovation and creativity.
- Go for gold.
I would argue that Prime Minister Gillard only exemplifies one of those traits listed above, that being Focus. Only problem with that is the almost undeniable observation that Julia Gillard is only focused on staying in power and that’s about it.
Elegant and flexible communication? That’s a no from me Mark. Unless you count Gillard’s now infamous misogyny speech, which was anything but elegant. The Altona Droner has been known to mysteriously cause TV sets around the nation fall silent whenever she graces their screens.
Coaching and mentoring? Um, that’d also be a no. Unless you count the mentoring of young, fresh faces promoted way beyond their ability to ministerial portfolios that they will barely have time to understand before they are turfed into the political wilderness for the next decade after September 14, 2013.
Resolving challenges, conflict, complaints and issues? I’m sorry but that’s another no from me. I suppose one could mount an argument on this one, but only if you admire Mao Zedong’s and Joseph Stalin’s methods of dispensing with any and all dissenters that dared challenge their authority.
Beliefs and values? Um, well after having experienced so many shifts in her beliefs, the only values she subscribes to are these fabled “Labor values“, values that even Labor party stalwarts such as Martin Ferguson, Simon Crean and Bill Kelty say she has trashed in her pursuit of power for power’s sake.
Innovation and creativity? That’s another no from me Mark, because the only innovation that we have seen is innovative new ways for the Gillard government to tax us, and the only creativity I have seen from this government is in how they can creatively cook the books in their ill fated attempt to deliver a surplus that never eventuated.
Going for gold? BOMP POW – That’s another no. Gillard and Swan lurch ever onwards with their transformative crusade to drastically shift our economy away from the resource economy that our great nation was built on to a “cleaner energy future” that also doesnt look like it will deliver the goods either. More like going for broke on that one, Mark.
So there you have it folks. Julia Gillard is now a heartless robot, focussed on only one thing. Power.
The new and improved Gillardinator – G1000 model™, coming to an electorate near you soon.
Just be sure to run in the opposite direction when it does.
UPDATE: As Tim Blair suggests, perhaps Mark Kenny has forgotten how Terminator 2: Judgement Day ended… (I think this is the more apt clip from the movie)
Dacka's Razor 