Brumby Refuses to Concede Defeat in a last-ditched effort probably to enjoy the title of Premier (albeit caretaker) for a few more days, and use of the State driver I'm guessing. Maybe... Can't think of why else, actually. A few more days of press coverage, Oakeshott style?
Perhaps he is being inspired by the Democrats, who locate hundreds of formerly "missing" postal votes during every recount - and all of them are Democrat votes. Amazing!
John Brumby. Ummmm....
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28 November 2010
DENIAL - STAGE 1 OF THE GRIEVING PROCESS
AFTER Brumby's Labor Government took, to use Obama's words, a shellacking at the polls yesterday, it is amazing how John Brumby, caretaker Premier until most likely sometime this evening, not only refused to concede (fair enough, too many seats haven't been called yet), but almost categorically stated that the result would be a tie. In order for that to happen, Labor would have to secure all 6 too-close-to-call seats, plus Bentleigh, to at best equal the Coalition's 44 already secured of the 88 Legislative Assembly seats.
Such an astronomical achievement is by no means impossible - after all, look at what Tony Abbott, and now Ted Baillieu, have achieved in the last 2 elections - but apart from being unlikely, does not diminish from the point, which is the message that the voters sent the Labor Party yesterday.
Either Brumby, like Julia Gillard and Barack Obama, didn't get the memo when they lost a swag of seats in almost record swings agains them; or, they just arrogantly refuse to acknowledge the electorate's utter and complete rejection of their performances and/or policies. We must remember that Brumby was always seen as never having a chance when he was leader of the then Labor opposition, before being succeeded by Steve Bracks. Since his unexpected ascension to the Labor throne (he was third in line at the time so who would have guessed), he has not faced the voters as the incumbent - until yesterday.
To be fair & balanced (inside joke), Brumby didn't inherit the greatest legacy from Steve Bracks. And let's face it, with Justin Madden by your side... enough said. Yet I can't imagine Abbott coming close to using a similar tone when making his speech on 21 August, even after having at least drawn with Labor 72-72, or 73-72 if you include the WA Nationals cross-bencher.
Tonight, if Bentleigh goes the Coalition's way as the VEC is expecting (thus the reason they chose that seat to fast track pre-poll vote counting), then we would hope John Brumby's concession speech would be more in touch with reality.
Herald-Sun journo Andrew Bolt keeps saying that John Brumby "is better than that." He seems to say it quite a lot about Brumby, which makes me wonder what the "that" is, and whether it's a standard as difficult to beat as Brumby makes it out to be!
Such an astronomical achievement is by no means impossible - after all, look at what Tony Abbott, and now Ted Baillieu, have achieved in the last 2 elections - but apart from being unlikely, does not diminish from the point, which is the message that the voters sent the Labor Party yesterday.
Either Brumby, like Julia Gillard and Barack Obama, didn't get the memo when they lost a swag of seats in almost record swings agains them; or, they just arrogantly refuse to acknowledge the electorate's utter and complete rejection of their performances and/or policies. We must remember that Brumby was always seen as never having a chance when he was leader of the then Labor opposition, before being succeeded by Steve Bracks. Since his unexpected ascension to the Labor throne (he was third in line at the time so who would have guessed), he has not faced the voters as the incumbent - until yesterday.
To be fair & balanced (inside joke), Brumby didn't inherit the greatest legacy from Steve Bracks. And let's face it, with Justin Madden by your side... enough said. Yet I can't imagine Abbott coming close to using a similar tone when making his speech on 21 August, even after having at least drawn with Labor 72-72, or 73-72 if you include the WA Nationals cross-bencher.
Tonight, if Bentleigh goes the Coalition's way as the VEC is expecting (thus the reason they chose that seat to fast track pre-poll vote counting), then we would hope John Brumby's concession speech would be more in touch with reality.
Herald-Sun journo Andrew Bolt keeps saying that John Brumby "is better than that." He seems to say it quite a lot about Brumby, which makes me wonder what the "that" is, and whether it's a standard as difficult to beat as Brumby makes it out to be!
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