Kevin’s heart and Julia’s passion

Gillard also acknowledged Rudd’s emotions, how devastating the leadership coup had been for him and the practical difficulties of moving out of the Lodge when his son was at school in Canberra. She reminded us that politicians are “flesh-and-blood human beings” after all, something that had been lost in public views of Rudd, when what Annabel Crabb calls his “Ruddbot” persona, took over. The pathos involved in Rudd finally re-establishing an emotional connection with the Australian people at the very moment of his defeat was only too apparent.

Peter Beattie has claimed that “if only Kevin had managed to show Australians and the party the emotion and dignity he revealed in his final speech as prime minister he could still be prime minister”. Beattie may well be overstating his case, not least because the speech also revealed the flaws, frailty and somewhat megalomaniac denial at the core of Rudd’s personality.

Alexander Downer has also pointed out that Rudd was crying mainly for himself. Furthermore, as already suggested here, there were multiple factors that had contributed to Rudd’s removal. Nonetheless, Rudd’s loss of emotional connection with the Australian people was arguably reflected in the polls, and the polls contributed in no small part to his defeat.

There are an increasing number of academic studies showing that emotion plays an important role in influencing not only how people vote but also what they remember and what they pay attention to. Unfortunately, Rudd may be remembered as the Prime Minister who stumbled and blubbered in a farewell speech that many found almost too painful to watch.

Up until then, Kevin Rudd had lost his emotional connection with the Australian people. Julia Gillard found it.