Tuesday, 10 June 2003

I keep hearing rumors there are Democrats campaigning for President right now, over in the States… but since we're a bit off the beaten track Down Under, they're not getting much in the way of local media coverage. (Hillary's new book was a topic of discussion on Good Morning Australia—the local Katie and Matt commented that Sharon Stone may play Hillary in a made-for-TV film, with the obligatory make-up-your-own Basic Instinct joke, but Gephardt and Dean and the other five dwarfs got no mention.) Instead we're being treated to the sordid details of a personality clash within the Australian Labour Party, which is sort of like America's Democrats, only they came out strongly against the Iraq war and are now squabbling over the, what, 30% of the electorate that still believes in them. Pundits are describing it as a contest to see who can lose to John Howard by the narrower margin.

When I first arrived in Australia back in March of 2000, the airport cab driver struck up a conversation about Sen. John McCain's chances in the South Carolina primary (!); considering that I couldn't have named an Australian politician if my life depended on it at the time, I was duly impressed. I suspect local coverage will pick up once the actual primaries begin, and that Australia's coverage of American elections will be much more thorough and complete than, say, America's coverage of Australian elections.

"Good Morning Australia" is not the real name of the program; it's really called "Sunrise," but I call it GMA so that American readers will immediately know the type of program I'm talking about. Australia's other morning-TV choices are "Today," which feels more like the CBS Morning News, and the third network shows Pokemon in the mornings.

- Posted by Scott Forbes at 11:31 am. comments.