For reasons I still don’t quite understand I watched Tony Abbott on The Bolt Report yesterday.
It was…weird.
There was more than a touch of deja vu to the whole experience. The re-emergence of all those questions that used to circle my mind when Abbott was PM and I watched him in various TV interviews:
Doesn’t he have any media advisors?
If he does, are they locked in a basement somewhere? Should someone check to see if they’re ok?
How did this man, so utterly inept at public speaking make a career in a job for which that is one of the main requirements?
He doesn’t really seem to understand what’s going on. Is he ok?
Why is he doing that thing with his tongue?
Why am I watching this? Am I ok?
Bolt was particularly unhinged after the Paris attacks, and was demanding that Abbott respond with the full force of Boltarian fearhate against Muslims and refugees. Abbott was refusing to rise to the bait. Everything is relative, and in comparison to Bolt’s fixed glare and the disturbing fact that he didn’t seem to ever blink, Abbott looked almost calm and reasonable.
He refused to endorse halting the Syrian refugee intake, wouldn’t actively condemn Turnbull for doing what security agencies have advised (not alienating Islamic communities and thereby increasing radicalisation and decreasing intelligence gathering opportunities). He wouldn’t even agree to Bolt’s suggestion that we should stop taking Muslim refugees. (I’m not sure how Bolt thinks this would work, maybe he thinks we can test for traces of Muslim in hair samples or something?)
Three times Bolt demanded that Abbott admit failing to repeal the racial discrimination legislation was a mistake. All three times, Abbott refused to bow to his demands.
Bolt grew increasingly frustrated as Abbott was increasingly non-committal.
Bromance is dead.
But the interesting thing about it, is why Abbott was refusing all Bolt’s demand to come out strongly for the unhinged right. Why was he trying so hard to appear reasoned and inoffensive? There’s no point to it – unless he still thinks he has something left to lose.
It’s the only explanation I could come up with. Abbott really thinks he has a chance to play Kevin Rudd to Turnbull’s Julia Gillard, and ride a wave of popular demand all the way back into the Prime Minister’s office.
And there we have that relativity problem again, because suddenly Bolt looks like the sane and reasonable one.
If Abbott were to ride a wave of popularity, it aint gonna come from the centre. It could only start with the right-wing loonitariat, headed by the likes of Eric Abetz, Cori Bernardi and, yes, Andrew Bolt. The reasonable centre has finally got their knight in well-fitted suits, they’re not going to give him up. The whole reason Abbott lost the Prime Ministership is because the middle ground were so repulsed by Abbott they would have voted in Shorten rather than give him another term.
So why make his first appearance on The Bolt Report if all he was going to do was pitch to the centre? Just being there reinforced the perception he is nailed to the mast of the right-wing, so why do that and then refuse to play ball with them ? All he achieved was to alienate both sides and irritate the middle.
Abbott’s always has a remarkable talent for own goals and it looks like he hasn’t learned any new skills over the last few months.
If nothing else though, the twitter feed was fun:
bolt: muslims! abbott: yeah but other things bolt: migration! abbott: yeah but it’s complicated bolt: MUSLIMS MIGRATION!! #boltreport
— Mark Di Stefano (@MarkDiStef) November 14, 2015
Bolt is getting cross. Abbott hasn’t declared war on anything yet. #boltreport
— Jane Gilmore (@JaneTribune) November 14, 2015
Is bolt really implying that Obama sent special forces into Syria as a result of Abbotts speech? Hahahahahahahahaha #boltreport #auspol
— Tonyabbotts corpse (@Carlosdjackal2) October 31, 2015
#boltreport A romance renewed. “I missed you” “Deathcult” “Oh stop” #auspol pic.twitter.com/cxTKV1RtlE
— Commissioner Rabble (@canthavepudding) November 14, 2015