Susan Mitchell’s hatchet job on Abbott fails…miserably

From Andrew Bolt and The Australian’s Cut&Paste:

Susan Mitchell, author of a hatchet job on the “misogynist” Tony Abbott, explains on ABC Radio 891 Adelaide just which of his views offends her:

SUSAN Mitchell: Let’s put women aside. Let’s talk about voluntary euthanasia. A lot of people, a majority of people in this country, want to see that actually happen. They want to be given the right to choose, or they want [it] to be, they want [it] at least to be on the agenda. Tony Abbott is against that. A lot of people are in favour of . . .

Chris Kenny: So where does Julia Gillard line up on gay marriage or euthanasia?

Mitchell: I’m not talking about Julia Gillard.

Kenny: Exactly. You’re talking about Abbott but both sides of politics are in furious agreement on these social issues.

Mitchell: Excuse me, excuse me, Chris. Julia Gillard’s not within [a] whisker of becoming prime minister at this stage. That is my point.

Kenny: No, actually, she is the Prime Minister.

Host Ian Henschke: She is the Prime Minister. Actually . . .Mitchell: I mean of becoming, you know, the next prime minister.

Does Mitchell realise how foolish and hypocritical she sounds?

An earlier comment on her literary caricaturization of Abbott:

Academic Susan Mitchell, author of a new book on Tony Abbott, says the Opposition Leader is just too rude:

The author blamed Mr Abbott ”for a decline in civility in our political discourse”…

Mitchell then demonstrates what a more civil political discourse is like, when conducted by a woman of the Left:

Her overall image of Abbott the man is one of being ”pugnacious, aggressive and arrogant”… (and) a leader who is “trapped in the past”.

Moreover:

TONY Abbott is a sore loser, afflicted by ‘’innate and deeply embedded sexism and misogyny‘’..

And:

TONY Abbott is a bully who hates women, and his outdated social views are a threat to national cohesion and plurality…

”He is extremely dangerous because he is a man of the past,” Dr Mitchell told The Weekend Australian yesterday… and accused him of “deeply embedded misogyny”…

“He is a man . . . unable to comprehend what women—who are 50 per cent of those Australians he wishes to govern—need and expect from a modern leader… (He) knows no other world but the one populated with his male heroes”,

So this is a civil discourse. What is an uncivil discourse, according to Mitchell, is…:

….his aggressive campaign against Labor’s proposed carbon tax

Mitchell is a hypocrite who in my opinion reduces people to grotesque caricatures to suit an ideology that is itself a grotesque caricature.

To make one small point. Abbott, this man who is “unable to comprehend what women … need” from politicians and who “knows no other world but the one populated with his male heroes” is a married man with three loving daughters. He also has a woman as his deputy and more women in key positions on his staff.  (And, indeed, women voters are almost as likely to vote for him as they are for Julia Gillard,)

Mitchell should be ashamed of herself for her grossly uncivil and even more grossly simplistic discourse.

And how authentic a representative is Mitchell of our cultural Left?

She is a former senior lecturer in Communications and Creative Writing at The University of South Australia. She is an Emeritus Professor at Flinders University where was recently a Writer-in–Residence… Susan is an accomplished radio broadcaster, having presented the morning program on the ABC in Adelaide (where she won “The Better Hearing Award” for clear speech)…She has been a Director on the Literature Board of The Australia Council, on the Board of Film Australia and the Board of The South Australian Tourism Commission.

I’d say more about Mitchell, but there are rules about how rude conservatives can now be.

UPDATE
Paul Kelly:

The two great myths are Abbott as extremist and Abbott as ideologue. The Australian public shuns such traits and Abbott’s poll ratings affirm this is not how the public sees him. The effort to paint Abbott as extremist and ideologue, once Labor’s central strategy, has failed so far.

Labor, however, cannot give up. Undermined by its own dysfunction, it will keep playing the Abbott card because it has few other options and is convinced he is a destructive force unfit to become prime minister. Labor’s last hope remains a bet against Abbott’s political character.