Richard Farmer’s chunky bits

When a politician fronts up on television around 7am as Tony Abbott and Julia Gillard did on the Seven Network this morning it is not really to influence the hundred thousand or so desperates who like looking at pictures while they eat their toast. It’s really about agenda setting — an attempt to say something that will be taken up as a theme of the day by the media that ordinary, sensible Australians  eventually do get around to watching, reading or listening to.

As that’s the case, today has not started well for the Liberal Party. There was nothing told to Kochie and his sidekick that will change the emphasis from a continued consideration of just what the Opposition would do about industrial relations policy if it becomes the government. The aspect most likely to be seized on as the campaign day continues was the Koch comment that left Abbott looking decidedly uncomfortable. After listening to yet another declaration that the old Work Choices laws of the Howard government were dead, buried and cremated, the questioner asked what then was to be made of the comment by deputy Opposition leader Julie Bishop on Q&A (no transcript as I write this but find it at 18 minutes into the program here) that there might have to be changes made after referring things to the “independent umpire”.

We are sure to see Labor pointing out all the things about the present system that can be changed without changing the letter of the law. Tony Abbott will be forced into another round of semantics about what can and can not be altered and how long his promise stands for.

What the industrial relations episode shows is the need for political parties to have a set form of words that all its spokespeople stick to when answering difficult questions. It really is quite amateurish of the Liberals and Nationals not to have them ready for the beginning of the campaign.

A bitchy choice. I have no objection to websites allowing readers to make comments in appalling taste. Within the limits set by the law of the land free speech should mean just that and I think the laws are a bit too restrictive as well. But I am surprised when a major newspaper site chooses to pick out and highlight a particularly obnoxious comment. Take this from the Sydney Daily Telegraph website this morning:

To me that looks like editors hiding behind whoever Elizabeth is to give an opinion they are too cowardly to express openly themselves.

More opinion poll lunacy. Why do they bother to spend good money on collecting unhelpful information? It is not just in Australia that opinion polls end up telling us absolutely nothing.

Those are the three latest polls listed on the Real Clear Politics site that purport to inform us how Americans would vote if the Congressional elections were being held now. Democrats at 36%, 49% or 43% — take your pick. And as for how President Barack Obama is faring, his latest approval ratings range from a positive eight percentage points to a negative five points.

Get ready for a refudiation. And thinking of American politics it is good to see Sarah Palin making her contribution to English as a living and ever-changing language. On the Fox News Hannity program recently the former vice-presidential candidate said this when asked about the resolution recently passed by the NAACP decrying racist elements in the Tea Party:

“It’s a false accusation, very unfortunate, and again, very very unnecessary. And the president and his wife, you know, the first lady spoke at NAACP so recently, they have power in their words, they could refudiate [emphasis added] what it is that this group is saying and they could set the record straight.”

When some unkind commentators chided Palin for mangling the language she was not the least apologetic but chose instead modestly to twitter a comparison of herself and Shakespeare.

And celebrate it the commentators are, with my favourite being a ShakesPalin Twitter feed that combines Shakespeare quotes with those from the former Alaska governor. (Examples as selected by NPR: “Get thee to a gunnery,” and “But soft, what light from yonder window breaks? It is the East, and I can see Russia from my front porch”.)