Political similarities

 I missed most of Kitchen Cabinet last night, featuring Annabel Crabb's lengthy friendly interview style with Anthony Albanese.  

In this online article by her, obviously related to the show, she notes similarities in the careers of Albanese and John Howard:

Point of view: You are the Australian prime minister. You've been elected for a second term, an outcome barely anyone would have predicted back when you were grinding your way through desolate years of opposition. You've just introduced a tax you once promised not to. You're staring down an intense scare campaign on that tax, while — in other news — Pauline Hanson is steaming in off a long run.

You are, of course, Anthony Albanese in 2026. But you could just as easily be John Howard in 1998.

We all, at some level, know that Australia has burned through a few too many political leaders of late. But it's genuinely rattling to realise that in the last 30 years, Anthony Albanese and John Howard are the only two prime ministers to win two elections in a row. The only two.

As it happens, I was saying to a friend only a week or two ago that Albanese and Howard seem to me to share the same kind of dorky "this man doesn't have the obvious looks or charisma to be PM, but I kind of like that about him?"  aspects. I think they both carry an air of slightly grumpy earnestness that goes over well, too.   Of course, there are a substantial number of people who hate them with a passion - but overall, I think they are relatively popular PMs because of the personal characteristics I've outlined.  

To compare some other recent PM's:  Morrison had a flaky Christian advertising man thing going that reeked insincerity and opportunism;  Turnbull always seemed like he had accidentally chosen the wrong party and was a tad too much in awe of himself, but his powers of political persuasion did not match his self-assessment;  Rudd definitely presented as always thinking he was the smartest person in any room but tried to cover it with a bit of false modesty in TV appearances.

Abbott - a generic weirdo with a "mummy" thing going on with his handler that was so strong it worried other Liberals in Parliament House!    And then there was Gillard, whose strong pre-leadership charisma suddenly diminished under the pressure of the top job; but you know, I think she is looked back on as having a basically likeable and good character, and I have ever heard Liberal voters positively admire her for her attitude of "no complaints, and no running commentary from me" after getting out of politics.  

That's my psychological profiling summation of the last 20 odd years of Australian Prime Ministers!