Wanna a man?

Firstly, apologies for such a big gap in posts. I will strive to blog weekly but please forgive me when this doesn't happen. Life (work, kids, family, cleaning etc etc) gets in between me and the computer often! :)

(stolen from SMH March 10, 2010)

I am going to blog today about something that deviates a little from my previous discussions on the policies. I want to raise the issue of the actual PERSON we are voting for as Prime Minister. Even though our democratic system doesn't allow us to actually vote for the prime minister (unless you live in the seats of Manly or Griffith), our culture is so celebrity/character driven that the MAN who is PM counts a lot. So - which MAN should I (we) vote for?

I am not aligned to any political party. I have no like/dislike for K.Rudd other than I am impressed he can speak Mandarin. He receives no sympathy points from me in regards to the Julia Gillard backstab/betrayal.  I do confess however that I have a personal dislike for T.Abbott. Why? I don't think it's his appearance or his party. I think it is his language. It is the way that he uses a lot of negative language in the public sphere that he walks in and which I feel isn't helpful for us voters as we try to look for policies instead of slogans. His speech are sometimes just a string of slogans. I listened to him talk about the recent boat-people crisis and actually found his use of the word "mugs" offensive.

But I want to and am willing to put aside that personal opinion of T.Abbott, if the man and his price/policy is right.  I really want to look beyond my own preferences to see what sort of character he is and also K.Rudd.

So I read this article about T.Abbott:

http://www.smh.com.au/comment/abbott-the-thinking-persons-prime-minister-20130619-2oj68.html

I also recall this article about Mike Baird who says some equally glowing accounts of T.Abbott:

http://www.smh.com.au/lifestyle/the-son-rises-20121023-282ga.html

And then read this one about K.Rudd to provide some balance:

http://www.smh.com.au/lifestyle/the-son-rises-20121023-282ga.html


All articles are bias. Some are just more obvious than others. All of the above are extremely bias. But I would like to hear what other people think. I confess, after reading the first article (and being slightly scared by the image that is in the article) I nearly fell off my seat laughing at the concluding line that T.Abbott was a "thinking woman's Prime Minister". (Down, prejudice, down!). It wasn't a convincing article for me.

Open to more though! So, please send me through articles to help me get a clearer picture of what MAN I want (to vote for).