Ruddy hell: Now Howard's turned into Kevin

Over the weekend the then irremediably cranky Liberal leader, John Howard, made only a cursory appearance to campaign in Parramatta before taking the weekend off.

Peregrine can now reveal that he was attending a new production of 'Extreme Makeover'. If he now proclaims he's 'been there, done that, got the t-shirt', the t-shirt will be emblazoned with the logo Kevin07.

This week, he flew to Victoria and found himself talking to an FM radio station, something he had steadfastly refused to stoop to during his entire career. Having entranced his listeners with tales of lonely breakfast, he then uncomfortably handled a plush bear on morning television. Still he throughly enjoyed himself, even if the only sexagenarian dancing that day was Patti Newton's paso doble.

Following Kevin's Sesame Street renewable energy target, brought to you by the number 20, John Mark II and a half announced, not just that a 20% target would wreak untold damage to the jobs of those poor coal miners, but that he was not opposed to renewable energy and he would look at the detail. Having taken the media persona of Kevin, John now appears to have swallowed his lexicon. Next he will be starting each sentence with a rhetorical question and proclaiming that he's a 'climate change moralist'.

Having snookered Malcolm of Wentworth for having the temerity to raise the prospect of ratifying Kyoto, John appears to be trying to have his yellowcake and eat it too. If he does decide that Kevin's sensible (but conservative) proposal to increase renewable energy share by 12% by 2020 is the way to go, he may need to seriously amend his clean energy target (including clean coal and nuclear). Unless he's planning a clean energy target of something in the order of 30-35%, he might not need his 25 cooling towers to get Ziggy with it.

This election campaign threatens to become acutely boring for political buffs. However, it is a fascinating example of human psychology. One man wants the other's job, while the other wants the other's tactics. Ross Gittins believes much of Howard's legacy is entrenched in Rudd's first term obligations. Perhaps Kevin can teach John Mandarin while they wait to appear on Nova.