Wednesday, March 29, 2006

The Best Prime Minister of them all?

Following my previous post about Blair's oral skills, Don Quixote said:
All this talk of prime ministers makes me think: who was the best of them all?I toss up between Whitlam and Keating; Whitlam for his social reform and Keating for his economic inroads.
I know, it's an old, subjective and endless discussion. That's why it's fun.

Who do you think and why? I like Keating but for all round skills Bob Hawke was the ultimate in my view, because he had that Clintonesque combination of a very powerful intellect and folksy down-to-earth manner.

Keating, like Costello in the present situation, couldn't see that he was at his peak as offsider to somebody far more electable.

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

Whitlam and Hawke for entirely different reasons. Hawkey was great because he was down-to-earth and smart. Whitlam was great because he was so eloquently aloof and smart.

Armagnac Esq said...

And the no fault divorce, reversal of 'buyer beware', and 20 or so other crucial reforms he and murphy drove and that we had to have.

However I don't view him in the same messianical way others in Labor do.

Armagnac Esq said...

Actually in terms of the kind of intellect you'd look up to, he's absolutely bereft. However he's extremely politically cunning.

Anonymous said...

Splatterbottom, Whitlam did more in his first few months of office than most governments do in years.

He was a reformer, and too few reformers ever reach the summit of political life as he did.

Anonymous said...

Rachy, if I may be so blunt, there is more to Whitlam's record than just what he happened to think of Soviet rule in the Baltics, an issue on which Australia had bugger-all influence.

It's like damning Johnny for, say, his efforts to torpedo the republic. Sneaky though the little bastard was, it was a very small part of the John Howard story.

Armagnac Esq said...

Bla bla come on SB, you're having the splatts.

I agree with changing university entrance to ensure that working class kids who want to attend have an equal shot at it, by reducing emphasis on school leaver exams and increasing use of particular aptitude tests for particular courses, as well as moving the emphasis to people who've gone and worked a few years first.

Anonymous said...

Maybe but his policy lead to this???

U.S. Muslim Gets 30 Years for Plot to Assassinate President Bush

TimT said...

I'm gunning for Hawkey. He started the economic reforms the country needed, and didn't try to shove a 'vision' down our throat like Whitlam.

Generally, I don't like politicians with a 'vision', since the implementation of said vision generally requires some form of authoritarianism to implement it.

Howard's an excellent statesman in many ways; he sees to the heart of a lot of political matters. (For instance, the issue of a 'Bill of Rights', of aid to foreign countries, etc). But his statements on these matters tend to be forgotten quickly due to other aspects of his career.

Anonymous said...

U.S. Capitol Hill Police Seek Arrest Warrant for McKinney After Scuffle

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