The more I see of this guy the more impressed I am. The Prime Miniature is going to have to pull out something particularly sneaky and evil this election if he wants to keep his job. (And perhaps his seat)
Ruddy (K-Rudd, the Ruddmeister, Kruddy - this is going to need some work) was really on top of things and seems to have a plan. Admittedly Tony Jones tossed him up a few lollies in the interview stakes and didn't overly push Rudd on some of his answers (most likely because he answered the questions so effectively) but didn't let him off scot-free either, pressing him on what he planned to say to (Evil Dick) Cheney when they meet on Friday.
The usual tired cries of ABC left-wing bias will no doubt spew forth from the peanut gallery (Rod Quantock made the point recently that the ABC would have to be run by Lenin and Marx to make up for the right-wing bias in commercial media) but the fact is that Rudd spoke with conviction and intelligence on a swag of topics for more than 20 minutes. (Another one of the things I love about Lateline and the ABC, which commercial station would give over this much time to a single interview and digging down into detail?)
At the end of the interview, Tony Jones seemed impressed with Rudd and finished up by saying "Kevin Rudd, it sounds like your speechwriters have come from the West Wing" - which I think was a good call. Roll on the election.
You can download this interview from http://www.abc.net.au/lateline/vodcast.htm
The transcript isn't up on the ABC website yet but you can check here for it during the day.
