Pick who's really not fit for statesmanship Dennis Shanahan on Rudd's fantasy that he'd be a better statesman than Abbott: In the past seven days, Rudd has travelled twice to Canberra for security briefings on Syria; delivered a major foreign policy speech; spoken to world and UN leaders, including British Prime Minister David Cameron and US President Barack Obama; left open the option of attending the St Petersburg G20 summit on the eve of the election; and given priority to Syrian issues over domestic politics and on-the-street campaigning... It is not a new tactic and is designed to build on Labor's former framing of Abbott as aggressive and unstable... [But] Rudd's record as a foreign policy PM does not live up to the expectations he created with his diplomatic background... On his first overseas trip as Labor leader, Rudd misjudged the balance between China and Japan and had to announce, mid-trip, that he'd make a special visit to Japan once it became clear he'd snubbed Australia's biggest trading partner in favour of China... Rudd later revealed a plan for an Asia-Pacific community so vague and unprepared it died of derision from our neighbours... The biggest diplomatic setback as a result of Rudd's foreign policy overreach and misjudgment was with the US... A confidential cable, leaked by WikiLeaks, ... [written by] the then US ambassador, Robert McCallum, ... criticised Rudd's behaviour after a report in The Australian detailing a private conversation with the president. The article made Bush appear foolish, reporting that Rudd was "stunned to hear Bush say, "What's the G20?" ," in reference to a planned meeting of world leaders. "Rudd's refusal to deny that his office was the source of the leak has confirmed to most Canberra observers that he showed exceptionally poor judgment in trying to aggrandise himself at the expense of Australia's most important relationship," McCallum said... The official US conclusion was: "Rudd undoubtedly believes ...he has the background and the ability to direct Australia's foreign policy. His performance so far, however, demonstrates that he does not have the staff or the experience to do the job properly. McCallum's view was that Rudd's missteps largely arose from his propensity to make "snap announcements without consulting other countries or within the Australian government." This post has been bumped from one below.