In Bennelong, He's More Middle Than Mean

Glee abounds on the Labor side of Australian politics. The Opposition is high on a bubble of sparkling opinion polls. Bring on the election! Party leader Kevin Rudd speaks and moves with the authority of an alternative Prime Minister, something his folk have not heard and seen for some time. Last week in Canberra, P.M. John Howard delivered a talk called "Building Prosperity: The Challenge of Economic Management." Same night, same city, Rudd gave a speech on "Prosperity Beyond the Mining Boom" to a business lobby group. In the printed drafts, Rudd's speech is more tightly spaced and a page longer...

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