Lucky escape for Mr. Rudd

Despite the fuss over Kevin Rudd’s drunken escapades at a New York strip club last week, the visit down memory lane has not deterred the support of much of the Australian public from the Opposition Leader.

It seems instead such circumstances of, what Rudd calls, “poor judgment” are in fact not that at all. To many Australian’s it has only confirmed that he is an ordinary bloke.

But can an ordinary bloke run the country? The Australian public still believes so. In a Herald Sun-Galaxy poll over the weekend, the survey asked people who they would vote for at a federal election right now. The preferred choice favored the ALP, with a 57 per cent victory over the Coalition’s 43 per cent. These statistics would surely be rattling the Howard Government to the bones as little seems to be working in their favor.

Mr. Rudd has luckily escaped any damaging criticism from the public over his strip club outing on a tax payer funded visit to New York four years ago. The little slip up caused quite a roar in its announcement but it seems that it is nothing more than shove in the right direction for the ALP.

As the Howard Government attempt to disturb Mr. Rudd, the polls suggest otherwise. Both female and male Australian’s believe that the events in New York demonstrate Rudd’s commonality with many Australian’s. The poll also revealed that people are more concerned with taxes than what Kevin Rudd got up to four years ago in a strip club. People are concerned with the state of affairs that affect them now, in everyday life. Evidently people consider taxes to be too high and the poll suggests that the Government’s announcement of a $17 billion surplus on the budget is heavily linked to high taxes.

A sought need for proper and effective economic management is what is driving Australian voters in the coming election, a problem that is not benefiting the Howard Government, particularly since the recent interest rate rise.