The way ahead is less complicated than it seems

28 June 2010Kevin Rudd departed the prime ministership this week much as he arrived in it: as a living, breathing, perspiring political question mark, writes David Burchell in the Australian

IN RETROSPECT, his is one of those political careers that, by their sheer unfathomableness, will enable commentators to draft pretty much any picture of the departed political figure they please.

They will gather together certain paradoxical fragments of the man: his easygoing familiarity with the invisible multitudes of breakfast television, contrasted with his imperious demeanour in the face of actual human rivals; his grand forays into political philosophy, juxtaposed with his interminable excursions into policy minutiae; his extraordinary capacity for concentrated intellection, coupled with his yawning lack of any sense of balance.

Then they will piece them together according to their personal preferences…

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Photo: Andrew Jeffrey

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