The platitudipuss doesn’t only live in Australia

In the U.S., political speeches get criticized for everything but being boring. They’re often called divisive, disingenuous, and downright dishonest—but for some reason, the pundits never quite say a speech is … boring.

Of course, lots of speeches are boring, and in Australia, they call a snooze a snooze. Vital Speeches‘ Sydney correspondent Rodney Gray forwards us a column by sharp-tongued Sydney Morning Herald writer Annabel Crabb, who writes of a recent Labor Party conference where Prime Minister Kevin Rudd spoke:

“They’re using that piped gas the Russians used when the Chechens took hold of that theatre,” one Labor figure messaged me Thursday while Kevin Rudd was making his speech.

It’s true that there are some parallels between the oratory of our prime minister and the more sophisticated of gaseous sedatives.

As correspondent Gray will continue to insist and demonstrate, Kevin Rudd sets records for windbaggery.

But the common platitudipuss can be found in North America, too.

So then why don’t we have a Crabb?