I thought that Peter van Onselen was supposed to be a journalist. But his writings over the past month have been consistently pro-Rudd. He seems to be acting as Rudd’s campaign manager.
Today we have his article Blocking Kevin won’t leave Julia a martyr saying she should step aside because she won’t be a martyr like Gough Whitlam. He argues she should stand aside because
all that will be remembered is the size of the defeat Gillard would have presided over.
On 15 June he said Poll rise is cold comfort: it’s gone stating
Rudd admitted yesterday he made mistakes as prime minister. It might seem like an obvious statement, but to the powerbrokers who are considering asking him to return to the prime ministership it was a key statement for him to make.
Again on 15 June in Gillard will leave no platform for ALP comeback, van Onselen wrote
The game-changing nature of a return to Rudd would see a realignment in fundraising for Labor, as well as seats into which those funds could be targeted. The simple fact that the party would no longer need to plough money into double-digit margin seats just to save the furniture would force the Coalition to spread its financing thinner. And Rudd could even open up defensive plays by the LNP in a state like Queensland, thus helping sitting Labor MPs to hang on to their seats.
On 13 June, he argued that Shorten must tell her it’s time to go, writing
Rudd is a proven campaigner popular with the public. The polling bounce alone following a change to Rudd would generate enthusiasm Gillard simply could not muster.
On 12 June, in an article Emotional blackmail follows political terror van Onselen attacks Julia Gillard
The perspective that Rudd is some sort of terrorist because he didn’t just roll up into a little ball and quietly go away after he was brutally ejected from the prime ministership is a convenient argument by Gillard supporters. But she was the initial aggressor, when as his deputy she challenged Rudd in his first term. That is true political terror.
On 11 June he wrote This is Shorten’s one shot at redemption arguing that Shorten must support Kevin Rudd by following John Button’s example of tapping Bill Haydon on the shoulder
The next sitting fortnight is Shorten’s chance at redemption, even if the process will not be a pleasant one. History will surely see it that way. Shorten must look to Button for inspiration.
Doing so [bringing back Rudd] has more chance of lifting Labor’s fortunes than the dysfunctional situation at the present
On 8 June, von Onselen argued that Labor MPs were Like lemmings, Labor MPs career towards the cliff by backing Gillard over Rudd.
HOW do 102 souls make the conscious decision to strap themselves into a bus that is about to career off a cliff? Because that is what the federal Labor caucus has done by sticking with Julia Gillard.
There are other examples, but I’m convinced that Peter von Onselen is Kevin Rudd’s biggest supporter and fan.
He did say ” Prime Minister I believe you” to the lying slapper. I suspect he doesn’t know who he supports.
SJ
Don’t ask why, but occasionally I have a bit of time for PVA.
I don’t read the stuff he’s saying ….that he’s necessarily batting for the Little Turd all the way. I think he reckons the Liars Party will receive such a hiding with the Lying Slapper at the helm that it wouldn’t be good for our politics.
I disagree. Anything more than one seat wouldn’t be a big enough hiding for the bastards, however PVA is a little more forgiving.
I think he just sounds quite soft hearted.
Hwy Pete, you need to find a dictionary and an editor who knows the english language and/or can spell.
The word is ‘careen‘. Once might be a typo but doing it twice in the same article means you are using big boy words you havent learned yet.
Soft headed more likely.
PvO appears to be nailing his colours to the mast in support of Rudd.
The Canberra rumour mill has it that Rudd is hiring personnel to start on the last day of Parliament and that PvO is on the list as a media “advisor”. Watch the back pedalling by van Onselen if the rumoured palace coup does not succeed.
“It wasn’t me Guv. I didn’t do nuffink”.
PVO as Rudd’s campaign manger, the ABC and Fairfax as JG’s.
van Oscillator in 2010 endorses Tin-ear’s putsch:
I wish someone would do what he demanded in this article& hold him”to account”.
Yes. He’s ditched JG for KRudd. They don’t call him van Oscillator for nothing. Whatever it takes for Labor to win.
Err, ‘career’ makes as much sense as ‘careen’ (which originally was what you do when you wish to scrape barnacles off a ship, the ‘rushing’ sense came later).
Don’t think it matters anyway. The Rudd-Gillard saga has been going on so long many will be bound to have lost interest. I’m beginning to think it will be a landslide either way. Voters know they will both put themselves well ahead of the needs of the nation.
I’ve always seen PVO as the media version of KR.
PVO hase been vocal on this point in his SKY shows as well. Asking all and sundry why won’t the ALP back Rudd into the top job.
Peter,
Because the moon faced prick is hated beyond all comprehension, that’s why. And while I have your attention, how about showing some balance ffs. You come across as a Rudd sycophant. Or are you angling for a job as a consultant? Give it a bloody rest mate.
No no no. He’s much more than that. He’s a professor.
Don’t tell Peter Hartcher that. All those KRuddy leaks and briefings must count for something.
LOL.
That sort of clinches it, no?
Onselen will back anyone he believes will Stop Abbott.
“… but I’m convinced that Peter von Onselen is Kevin Rudd’s biggest supporter and fan.”
Not quite. Kevin Rudd is Kevin Rudd’s biggest supporter and fan.
5. speed, especially full speed: The horse stumbled in full career.
6. a charge at full speed.
verb (used without object)
1. to run or move rapidly along; go at full speed.
I stopped reading anything by PvO about three years ago in the interests of maintaining my sanity. It’s an embarrassment that he hails from Perth let alone being employed by UWA. Murdoch or Noddy uni I could understand, but UWA? – it’s cringeworthy.
He’s just doing what all sensible Lefty journalists do – backing the winner.
I’m sure that if the election result is a fair reflection on the polls, he’ll swallow his pride long enough either to say nice things about Tony Abbott or, if he can’t manage that, savage both Rudd and Gillard in one orgasmic torrent of disappointment-fuelled rage. He will of course be joined in this by numerous fellow journalists, all of whom have spent the last six years onanistically idolising either Gillard or Rudd or both, but who will all be looking to prove to the world that THEY KNEW ALL ALONG that both these mendacious jerks were doing Australia a terrible disservice.
The sensible thing for Abbott (indeed, the entire Liberal Party apparatus) to do would be to deny interviews to any of them ever again, and to point this windsock-like behaviour out as the reason why.
In the meantime, amid the crushing annihilation of Labor, I hold out a small hope that Malcolm Turnbull will lose his seat.
Well, well, well – from PvO’s piece tomorrow (just received a leaked copy):
At which point, I stopped reading.
One word – Lewandowsky. Makes me wish I had gone somewhere credible like La Trobe or something.
In 2010 PVO voted for Gillard because he has daughters…
He was at Edith Cowan, which is the equivalent of Kabul Technical School.
If PVO wasn’t on The Oz staff, you’d probably be appearing cut n’ paste for that effort Token. Well played.
Come on. Rudd is his daddy. Julias milk has has run out so he is weaned off her. Him and his dad have a lot in common as they both spruik bullshit.
More like Rudd’s campaign bitch.
Taking the PM position now is Rudd’s last shot. After that, he’s history.
Unless he wins or saves most, not just some, of the furniture.
If PvO is really in his thrall, he could well be overshooting badly.
Explains why Bolta shoots him down in flames every other day.
He was Kyms foil for the ALP “hate media” threat once Hartigen moved on but now Gillard is no threat he stays left leaning, however by supporting Rudd helps destroy ALP but seen as a sympathizer. He is a Williams plaything and pretty good at, so this post is about the monkey you need to look to the organ grinder.
PvO & Chris Mathews share a common interest.
I wonder if PvO likes the ‘Crease in
ObamasKevvnis pants’.I think PvO saves that for Turnbull, his true love.
PvO simply reads everyone else’s commentary then writes a version tainted with his own personal preference. Useless as a journalist and not worth whatever The Oz pays him. I’d do his column for nothing – and do it better.
Why I want to have Kevvi’s Babies
Kevin van Rudd’s courageously courageous decision to come out in favour of same sex marriage has left me with more than just a tingle up my leg…
This has to be trolling, or an attempt at a “gotcha” deception.
There is surely no way any sane journalist could write this with a straight face. Even PvO.
Why would someone get all pedantic about the use of a word without looking it up in the dictionary. Such certainty when in error reminds me of a certain political party.
One word – Lewandowsky. Makes me wish I had gone somewhere credible like La Trobe or something.
La Trobe credible? Didn’t the flim-flam man go there? and it’s the lair of Robert Manne!!!11!!1!!
Somebody had to fill Megalogensis’ place at the Oz. Just means I went from not reading Meglomanic to not reading VO.
Career is correct usage.
Google definition:
ca·reer
/k??ri(?)r/
Noun
An occupation undertaken for a significant period of a person’s life and with opportunities for progress.
Verb
Move swiftly and in an uncontrolled way in a specified direction: “the car careered across the road and went through a hedge”.
Synonyms
noun. profession – occupation
verb. rush – run – speed – gallop
I guess he thinks he’ll get into the good books of Rudd because JG is now not the up and coming powerhouse she was when he “courted” her ….self-interest is always a good bet in these things …..
“HOW do 102 souls make the conscious decision to strap themselves into a bus that is about to career off a cliff? Because that is what the federal Labor caucus has done by sticking with Julia Gillard”
Why shouldn’t they?
Some of them built the bus, some tuned the engine and some checked it’s tyres for pressure. Some may at the very least, have only come along for the test drive. All of them hired the driver or “coach captain”. It ain’t just Julia that needs to go over the cliff and it isn’t and should not be Julia that is remembered as the problem. This is a government plain and simply too far to the left that has had to lie and distort and divide due to a failed ideology implimented. The entire government and leftism is the failure here and if we allow a single person to take the fall we play right into their hands. They will be able to regroup and come back sooner.
In my opinion PVO is simply pro-Labor. He’s supporting Rudd, because on polling, Rudd would seemingly be the one to help Labor either fall over the line, or save seats. He’s dropped his support for Gillard because even he knows that she’s the one leading Labor to the Great Wipeout, and being a good Progressive, he doesn’t want that. He wants his team to remain in power by whatever means necessary.
PVO claimed to have been a Liberal ‘Wet’ or somesuch, but I think he’s more like that blog irritant Janey Has Moved – for years professing to have voted Liberal, but all along really in the Progressive Labor/Greens camp (only difference being that JHM is rusted onto Gillard).
Samuel, you have spent way too much time taking notice of van Onselen. He simply does not have enough that is worth saying for any intelligent human being taking that much interest in him.
A short while ago, PVO was slobbering all over Julia and was the chief journalistic counsel for the defense of the AWU slush fund allegations against her. He was the only journalist to say “I believe you” to Julia. But for the fact that “I have daughters”, he would have voted for Abbott in 2010 instead of Gillard.
And now he has turned against her(and his daughters), spurning her for Kevin O’Lemon. Why? Will Rudd stop: the spending; the illegal boats; the drownings from of sunken illegal boats (over 1000 to date); the divisiveness; the class warfare; Labor infighting? Noooooooooooo!
One of the sad things about PVO’s brand of journalism is that his readers, who are more wiser and maturer than him, have to watch him slowly grow up and become a journalist with the assurance to write and opine on matters without fear or favor. With this latest reversion to Kevin O’Lemon, any sense of balance and improving maturity is definitely in suspended animation. Just like Kevin O’Lemon and the Labor Party.
Fascinating.
I haven’t read or watched anything of Pieter van Hi-alan for years.
The real question is why is SamuelJ?
Fascinating.
I haven’t read or watched anything of Pieter van Hi-alan for years.
The real question is why has SamuelJ?
I like van Oscillator for his inability to adopt a stance and hold it. Isn’t this the same PvO who was in a dither over voting for Red Robot because he would NEVER be able to explain not voting for her to his daughter.
Sounds like a plagiarising perfesser…
Impartiality is only optional these days . At least News ltd jurnos and editors openly admit their campaign for regime change saying simply – ‘if you dont like it dont read it ‘ .
And with nearly 70% of circulation – that’s not the same as ownership – ‘if you like it, read it’ is clearly what the readers are saying.
Van Insolence and P. Howes seem to share personae; puffed-up importance, desperately trying to assume expressions of gravitas cred, and making foolish promises/predictions which crumble as soon as the inevitable opposite occurs.