After trying hard to make a difference in the Middle East and in Europe, President Obama appears to be changing course. He is focusing on the Pacific region instead. This is where future growth will be greatest, according to him. It is also where the US is welcome.

Unfortunately for Europe/US relations, Europe has a chip on its shoulder. A very weak shoulder as it turns out. The Europeans have their own problems now and it is no use trying to form closer alliances with them while they are struggling with financial difficulties. Europe is unfortunately shackled by traditions, and it suffers delusions of past grandeur. Yes, they were powerful once but now they are in deep trouble.

As far as the Middle East is concerned, what can one say? A basket case of disaffected people who are busy with their own political turmoil. And when that is solved, in the fullness of time, there will be economic turmoil as well. So no wonder that President Obama has decided to retreat from closer involvement with that part of the world.

Anyway, the US cannot solve the entire world’s problems. It has tried and been rebuffed too many times by envious nations. Nor should it be expected to do so when it has obligations at home.

Which leaves the developing nations of Asia, S.E. Asia as well as the developed Western nations of Australia and New Zealand. And that is sensible.

It was a pleasure to hear President Obama speak to the Australian parliament today. He is a skilled and diplomatic orator. No wonder the Australian parliament gave him a lengthy ovation. Everyone kept on clapping and clapping as he personally made certain that he shook hands with all the politicians there. Even Senator Bob Browne of the Greens was unusually courteous even though he is no fan of the US and its policies.

Prime Minister Gillard spoke very well and was impressive, but the standout speech was by Opposition Leader, Tony Abbott, who appeared more erudite than Gillard.

I wish that the public could hear him talk that way more often. Less passion, less vitriol and more reflective speeches from Abbott would do him a lot of good. He shouldn’t suppress his natural inclination to be a deep thinker. And he should reveal that side of his character to the Australian population.

It’s what is appealing about President Obama. The President is intelligent and is not ashamed to show it. Abbott is also intelligent and educated. So why not demonstrate it to us more often?

I have always been a pragmatist. That is why I believe that the US marine base in Darwin will be of great benefit to Australia. We are a big country here with a small population and negligible defence capabilities.

That is why we need a military alliance with a power that has similar values to our own. Not that I’m naive enough to think that sharing values is enough for an alliance to work. After all, we had some sort of relationship in the past with Great Britain, but when the Great War broke out our soldiers were used as cannon fodder at Gallipoli and elsewhere. And when the Second World War broke out and Japan attacked our part of the world, Great Britain abandoned us.

So sharing a past history and having similar values were not enough to make the Brits come to our rescue.

What was in it for them? Not much as it turned out. Loyalty towards its colonies flew out the window. We were on our own. So thank goodness it was in the U.S interest to fight the Japanese and this saved us.

My point is that nations will help one another only when it is in the interest of all involved to do so. It just makes sense, therefore, to foster an alliance that will benefit the US. The by-product of that is that Australia’s survival will be useful to our ally.

I also believe that the US and Australia have common enemies and it will serve us both to strengthen our relationship.

On a personal note, I am never more comfortable than when I travel in the US. I think we understand one another in spite of our minor differences.

Nevertheless, similar values are not enough and we have to make it worth their while for the US to come to our aid if we need it. Having US military bases in Australia should help.

You have to admire Alan Joyce, CEO of Qantas. There he was at the Senate inquiry into Qantas’ lockout on Saturday, one solitary figure defending his actions before the big wigs of the Senate. He gave as good as he got when Doug Cameron attacked him and said he was like Richard Nixon to which Joyce replied that Cameron was holding a McCarthy trial.

A petulant Bob Brown, hostile as ever to big corporations, resorted to calling Joyce devious and obscure. The more I see of Brown the more I mistrust him.

Joyce doesn’t look tough. He looks gentle but he definitely has mettle. One could not argue with his claim that the unions were trying to wreck the company. He described the protracted on again off again strikes by the unions as “Death by a thousand cuts”.

Sadly, Qantas may yet become too weak to survive but at least Joyce will have fought for the company.

And you have to respect a man who says that the decision to take strong action against the unions was his and his alone. A bit of a Western Hero like Alan Ladd in “Shane” or Gary Cooper in “High Noon”.

Isn’t it amazing how quickly people forget! Kevin Rudd was a hopeless Prime Minister who couldn’t get on with his ministers and his staff. He was a tyrant who refused to listen to caucus. He was a one man band, a law unto himself and his main ambition was to use the Prime Ministership position to inveigle himself into the post of Secretary-General of the UN.

So why do the Aussies suddenly want him back?

The answer is quite simple. The public has realised that the current Prime Minister is even worse in many ways. She has the foolish habit of announcing policies before they have been assessed. She even announces policies which are up in the air under the misapprehension that announcing the policy is a done deed. It’s been announced, therefore it exists.

For example, take the Malaysian solution for our boat people problem. It had not even been finalised when she jumped in, mouth open, and put her foot in it. The Malays had not yet agreed and yet she put herself and Australia in a weakened position for the negotiations. She would have to agree to anything the Malaysian government demanded because they now had the upper hand. Now that’s pretty stupid.

So why did she do this? Well, it’s because she is desperate. She has Kevin Rudd as a nemesis, ready to pounce. He must be gloating every time she makes a big mistake.

We have now witnessed her terrible handling of the live cattle fiasco. She has managed to put a hold on a thriving export industry when all she had to do was to reserve the export of live cattle to abattoirs that were humane.

It’s all because of desperation. She simply does not think things through. She reacts in a knee-jerk way like a person who is out of control.

The public have become thoroughly sick and tired of her and in fact, the more she appears on TV the less people like her.

If she wants to appeal to the public then she should make herself scarce. That’s what Kevin Rudd did by avoiding Australia.

Apparently, absence makes the heart grow fonder when it comes to politicians and the ordinary public is very forgetful. When Rudd is flying around the planet bringing joy to other climes, they begin to wonder if he really was as bad as all that.

Yes, he is that bad and it didn’t take long before he gave an interview this week in which he told everyone to “pop a Mogadon”. Not a wise bit of advice, is it? What a patronising creep he is and a drug pusher to boot…