Kevin Rudd, the Federal Opposition leader here has been outstripping John Howard in every poll imaginable for months. The other day it was revealed that Rudd had visited a gentleman's club in New York back in 2004, where other kinds of stripping and poles occur. The journalist who broke the story (who, ironically, recently started a drunken fight at an awards show) claims Rudd was warned with expulsion for "rowdy" behavior, but Rudd reckons he was so drunk he can't even remember what happened.

http://www.news.com.au/story/0,23599,22277683-2,00.html


It already seems to have been virtually forgotten, but my question to you is, should this harm his chances of becoming Prime Minister?

Kevin Rudd, the Federal Opposition leader here has been outstripping John Howard in every poll imaginable for months. The other day it was revealed that Rudd had visited a gentleman's club in New York back in 2004, where other kinds of stripping and poles occur. The journalist who broke the story (who, ironically, recently started a drunken fight at an awards show) claims Rudd was warned with expulsion for "rowdy" behavior, but Rudd reckons he was so drunk he can't even remember what happened.

http://www.news.com.au/story/0,23599,22277683-2,00.html


It already seems to have been virtually forgotten, but my question to you is, should this harm his chances of becoming Prime Minister?


No charges were filed, no one was arrested, no one was hurt, nobody even threw them out of the club that they were in for all of 15 minutes. That article is not even newsworthy IMO.

So, no, I don't think this "incident" (if you want to even call it that) that happened nearly four years ago will have any impact on Mr. Rudd.

Ant

Well, I wouldn't pull the lever for him...sounds like he has no trouble pulling his own!
:-\\

Uhhh...but seriously folks, seriously.  It sounds like he was being a drunk, rowdy, a-hole in a stripclub.  If this is the only known incidence, the I can't say I would refuse to vote for him.  

In 1992 I voted for a man who we all knew committed adultry...multiple times.  Bill Clinton.  I despised his womanizing (or was I just jealous?), but I had to weigh the options:

William Jefferson Clinton, the pro-big business governor of Arkansas.
versus
George Herbert Walker Bush: the pro-big business oil baron and convicted war criminal.


So there you have it.

I would have to judge Rudd on his political platform versus the opposition's political platform.

Should Rudd's night of debauchery harm his chances?  By itself, I don't think so.  Would it harm his chances?

I can't speak for Austrailia, but in the U.S., it certainly would.  Rudd did nothing the average red-blooded American male doesn't do on a Saturday night, but when it comes to our political leaders and sex, we want Ward Cleaver.
::)

Well it doesn't seem to have done him too much harm. Most regular Joes seem to think it makes him more human. At least he knows what it's like to be drunk and ogle a few boobs like any red-blooded male. There's no way in Hell our current PM could even remotely give that impression. :)

This was a single indiscretion, by the way, to answer your question there Max. With our interest rates just jumping another .25% after Howard promised to "keep them low" 3 years ago, the Medicare blow-out, the housing crisis and the war in Iraq, Rudd would just about have to murder someone live on TV to do too much damage to his chances at the moment.

All I can say is that we've never had a Prime Minister who was publically known as a womaniser. We,ve had a few who were drunks, I'm sure, but that was behind closed doors. The closest thing we've had to that is Trudeau who was more of a ladies man, but when he first become PM he was a bachelor, so it was kind of expected and a lot of people kind of enjoyed having a playboy PM.

Like RedAnt said, he did nothing illegal, no one was hurt, no harm done to anyone.....why should it even be an issue?  It's not like he did anything that many other red-blooded men haven't done before.....just because he's a political figure, he's supposed to be asexual?  Puhleeze ::)

Well it doesn't seem to have done him too much harm. Most regular Joes seem to think it makes him more human. At least he knows what it's like to be drunk and ogle a few boobs like any red-blooded male. There's no way in Hell our current PM could even remotely give that impression. :)
dittoes! i personally would feel a little better knowing there's an actual human in office, rather than the david icke-ian reptilian aliens masquerading as human beings that we have here in the states.

Depends upon who was doing what to the "pole".  ;)

dittoes! i personally would feel a little better knowing there's an actual human in office, rather than the david icke-ian reptilian aliens masquerading as human beings that we have here in the states.

True...but there are 100 better I'd rather see a man show he's "human" than getting up to this sort of mischief!
::)

Well he's kicking Howard's ass in the polls, even still. That's all I care about.  :)

...where other kinds of stripping and poles occur.

Pointless aside: I was sad when John Paul II died for a rather different reason.. whenever someone mentioned "Pole dancing", I'd have this mental image of JPII boogieing on down.

Of course it shouldn't affect his chances of getting elected either way; we expect hugely contradictory sets of values from our elected politicians (e.g. lying - we expect them to be able to lie convincingly for the country, but not to it), and nobody takes enough time to consider the person they're voting for anyway.

Like most people, I'd rather have an effective rogue than a bumbling saint in charge.  Come to think of it, I'd probably own up to preferring an effective rogue to an effective saint, too: sanctity isn't necessarily a positive trait when it comes to running a country.  If anything, quite the reverse.

What I hate most about this kind of story is the hypocrisy that often underlies it: journalists and editors coming over all preachy at a politician doing something the newsmen'll do all the time.

...but Rudd reckons he was so drunk he can't even remember what happened  ... should this harm his chances of becoming Prime Minister?


In a perfect world, it should not only not harm his chances, it should guarentee him the post of Prime Minister, and I don't even care what his policies are.  Any politician willing to stand up and publicly declare the right to boozing in a strip club... is OK in my books.

Alas, it is an imperfect world.

In a perfect world, it should not only not harm his chances, it should guarentee him the post of Prime Minister, and I don't even care what his policies are.  Any politician willing to stand up and publicly declare the right to boozing in a strip club... is OK in my books.

Alas, it is an imperfect world.


If only Bill Clinton had stared straight into the camera like George C. Scott and bellowed:

"Goddam right I did!  She s*cked my **** 'till it was drier than the Sahara and I shoved that cigar so far up her **** it shot out her nose!  Now, If you h*m*s in the vast right-wing closet can't get the missus started in the morning, send her on over to me and I'll do the job you ain't man enough to handle!  Now this ain't the Harper Valley PTA; we've got a country to run and unless you wanna float face down in the Patomac, I suggest you all get back to work!  Good night and God bless, God knows you're desperate for it!"

http://www.inthe00s.com/smile/12/director.gif

Now, the Dittoheads would never admit it, but they'd all have a lot more respect for Bubba after that!

If only Bill Clinton had stared straight into the camera like George C. Scott and bellowed:

"Goddam right I did!  She s*cked my **** 'till it was drier than the Sahara and I shoved that cigar so far up her **** it shot out her nose!  Now, If you h*m*s in the vast right-wing closet can't get the missus started in the morning, send her on over to me and I'll do the job you ain't man enough to handle!  Now this ain't the Harper Valley PTA; we've got a country to run and unless you wanna float face down in the Patomac, I suggest you all get back to work!  Good night and God bless, God knows you're desperate for it!"

Oh, if only :D