I thought I should post a belated apology for the lack of bloggage from this armadillo over the last several days. I’ve just been flat out like a lizard/armadillo drinking. Fortunately the co-armadillos have maintained an admirable flow of challenging posts. I’ll post a comment to Christopher Sheil’s Truth and Politics III when I get a chance. It’s a fascinating topic on which there’s much more to say. I’m surprised it hasn’t generated a more active debate.
Lastly, I see Dubbya is visiting Australia in October. The news broadcast I saw claimed that Bush is a rugby fan and timed his visit to coincide with the World Cup. I await Christopher Sheil’s reaction with interest.
Leaving the rugby point aside (except to say I think we need to get the weapons of mass deception inspectors onto this alleged Bush interest), I would have thought Howard would welcome this visit like a hole in the head. Insofar as I can tell, Howard has had a blessed run on Iraq compared to Bush and Blair. Perhaps this has simply been a measure of the incapacity of the Opposition and the weaker levels of accountability in the Australian political system. But to the extent that it hasn’t bitten on the PM because, well, most folks would just rather not think about it, there’s nothing like a visit from Dubya himself to bring our role home (here and overseas, and hopefully he’ll come with no terrorists trailing behind him). Not quite the prospect to send the Coalition dancing down the street, I would have thought.
There was a quick flurry of excitement on the NSW Central Coast this am around the scheduled US vs Japan Rugby World Cup match in Gosford in late October perhaps being coincident with the Bush excursion….sadly not it seems. The opportunity for the Gosford Communique to get up there with the Ems Telegram and the Oslo Accords has been lost for the moment.
On the other hand, every uni within a couple of hundred kilometres of wherever Bush pitches up will be denuded of it’s student body as they riot on predictable cue for the cameras – thus ensuring an inevitable rise in popularity for the Coalition.
BTW I note a sudden and unexpected surge in the polls for Blair this am …… all very strange.