Rift on Iraq as Bush meets man tipped as next Australian PM

[rodeodance]

Source: afp




Rift on Iraq as Bush meets man tipped as next Australian PM

by Lawrence Bartlett 38 minutes ago

SYDNEY (AFP) - US President George W. Bush met Thursday with the man tipped to be Australia's next prime minister, Kevin Rudd, who has pledged to pull the country's troops out of Iraq.

Rudd, leader of the centre-left Labor Party, indicated that Bush had been unable to persuade him to change his mind about Iraq, saying he had stuck to his well-known position on a staged withdrawal.

"On the Iraq question ... I made very plain to the president that we had a different point of view," Rudd said. "I think I can safely say he noted that view."

Bush did not respond to reporters' questions about the talks, but White House national security spokesman Gordon Johndroe said the US leader "had a good session" with Rudd.
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Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20070906/wl_afp/apecsummitusaustralia_070906144955;_ylt=AhA1BrbfnCzWWoPo50Q2vy6bOrgF

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But Bush had secret meeting with him. Gotta wonder what carrots he offered for him to keep troops in iraq.???????

[AndyA]

1. George Bush: Winning over new friends one at a time.

Not. :(

The man just flat out doesn't get it. I've said it before, if he lost 1% of his intelligence, his bodily functions would cease.

[beltanefauve]

2. This statement concerns me

Regarding John Howard being behind in the polls:"My own judgement is I wouldn't count the man out," he (Bush) told a joint news conference. "As I recall, he's kind of like me: we both have run from behind and won."

Choicepoint, anyone?

[TheMadMonk]

6. We DO have hand counted paper ballots.

Gaming our system is a whole different kettle of fish. Not saying Howard won't stage a comeback, but if he does, it will be with a fair degree of legitimacy.

[IndianaGreen]

10. In Mexico's elections, paper ballots were used, but not recounted

instead, the government controlled electoral commission only allowed a review of the summary sheets attached to each ballot box. Inspection of the ballots were not permitted despite a preponderance of the evidence showed that there had been massive fraud involved ballot stuffing and the finding of thousands of ballots cast for opposition candidate AMLO in a trash dump.

There are myriad of ways to steal an election and Bush, and those behind him, have mastered every one of them.

[canetoad]

7. This may have been a sloppy comment by GW

or it may have highlighted his lack of understanding of the differences in the electoral systems of our two countries.

We do not vote to elect a prime minister; we elect members (and senators) in electoral areas - seats. The party system gives a group of elected members a majority which then elects its leader. That person becomes prime minister.

While it is true that John Howard is predicted by some polls to be behind in his own electoral seat, whether he wins it or not, there is no guarantee that he will continue to be Prime Minister if (god help us) his party retains a majority at the next election.

To say they both have run from behind and won is not a true or fair statement. Is there no bottom to the the depth of ignorance this man displays?

[beltanefauve]

8. Thanks for the clarification!

[IndianaGreen]

9. I wouldn't put past Bush and Howard to fix the Australian elections as

Bush and Calderon fixed the Mexican ones.

[bemildred]

3. "I think I can safely say he noted that view."

LOL. Way to go Kevin.
:thumbsup:

[Binka]

4. Bush Probably Flipped Him Off And Called Him A MotherFucker

Ah Little Lord PissyPants always on the mark when it comes to dignity and decorum.:sarcasm:

[cliss]

5. I don't think there's anything Bush can do at this point.

Mr. Rudd is running on the platform of bringing his troops home. He will get elected on that promise. What can Bush do about that? Not a damn thing. If Rudd decides to placate Bush, he won't get elected.

there's only one outcome here - Aussie troops are leaving, just like the UK did last week. Interesting, also. Notice? How quickly and incident-free the pull-out was. They just .....left.
Now think about all the screeching, the threats about leaving, etc. Kinda defuses their argument.:smoke:

[Josh]

11. Not that simple

Iraq is not going to be a major campaign theme in the election here. Labor's policy happens to be a staged withdrawl of Aussie combat troops within six months, it's not a big issue and it's not going to be one that dominates the election. There are very few Australian troops in Iraq and it's more of a symbolic thing than anything else; the way Rudd has been clever is by being anti-Iraq but not perceived as anti-America at the same time. He appears to be a statesman about it, which is part of his plan of basically running as a younger and more moderate version of John Howard.