The Coalition of the Unwilling

Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd and President Bush: Seeing eye to eye, but not really. (By Melina Mara -- The Washington Post)
Buy Photo

A reporter asked if Bush would transfer the "man of steel" moniker to Rudd.

"Heck, yeah," the magnanimous Bush replied.

At Brookings yesterday, Thornton used his introduction of Rudd to celebrate his rejection of a prominent Bush/Howard policy. "The very first act as prime minister was to ratify the Kyoto protocol, which had been sitting dormant too long," he said.

Rudd, a former diplomat, was more subtle. He reminded Americans that Australia is "the 15th-largest economy in the world," with a stock market "three times the size of Singapore" and a military budget that is "the 11th largest in the world." He then suggested that Australia would be doing more leading and less following. "For too long," Rudd said, "our voice has been too quiet in the wider councils of the world."

As an early test of that philosophy, Rudd was about to insert himself into the American presidential race. At the close of the prime minister's speech at Brookings, Australian officials advised the cameras to stick around -- the better to catch Clinton stepping from her motorcade to meet with the prime minister.

The two were planning to talk for five or 10 minutes, before Clinton traveled to Harrisburg, Pa., for a campaign event. But after half an hour behind closed doors, the pair emerged smiling and whispering for the cameras.

Rudd had declared his support for Clinton last year, on the show of Australian comedian Rove McManus, which also included the question "Who would you turn gay for?" Now prime minister, he had to be more circumspect (he also scheduled a meeting with John McCain and a phone call with Obama). When an Australian reporter asked if he is still endorsing Clinton, Rudd would only say "I'm a good friend of Senator Clinton's."

In a reference to the rigors of the campaign trail, the prime minister also confided that he had "every sympathy for Hillary."

But Clinton, trailing Obama in delegates, the popular vote and opinion polls, took a broader interpretation of the prime minister's pity. "I need all the sympathy I can get," she said.