“Let the word go forth from this time and place, to friend and foe alike…” Kevin Rudd has received a friendly, international name-check from a key Rupert Murdoch lieutenant.

In a piece in the London Daily Telegraph titled “A new generation waits to pick up JFK’s torch”, American economist, columnist and think-tanker Irwin Stelzer includes one Kev from Queensland on a list of rising stars of the English-speaking world aged under 50:

“Let the word go forth from this time and place… that the torch has been passed to a new generation…”. So spoke John F. Kennedy, not yet 44 years old, at his swearing-in on January 20, 1961. “Politics requires… that elusive sense of being in tune with the times.” So wrote David Miliband in the New Statesman this month.

Look around the English-speaking world at the rising stars under 50. In America, Barack Obama has stunned the political establishment by matching Hillary Clinton in the fund-raising race for the Democratic presidential nomination. In Canada, Stephen Hayes was sworn in as prime minister last year.

In Australia, Kevin Rudd, elected last year to head the Labor Party, leads John Howard by a large margin in the polls…

News Limited Kremlinologists pay close attention to Stelzer. While he is American, he is a frequent commentator on British politics in a range of UK publications. There, a favourable endorsement from Stelzer is often seen as a proxy nod from Rupert.

It’s nice timing for Rudd — an international mention at a time of intense embarrassment after a run-in, ironically, with Rupert’s rough and tumble local Telegraph.