Headlines Wednesday 17th September

Turnbull victory best for Libs
Piers Akerman
Malcolm Turnbull’s emergence as the leader of Parliamentary Liberal Party is the best possible outcome for the Coalition, and ultimately, may also prove to be best for the nation.
While there were only four votes in his 45 – 41 victory over Brendan Nelson, the margin is greater than that which saw Nelson succeed former Prime Minister John Howard after the Liberals lost office last November in the election in which Mr Howard lost his own seat of Bennelong.
Had Mr Nelson survived by a four seat margin in this morning’s party room ballot, the result would not have been as positive for him as many in the party would have viewed him as just hanging on.
There were no speeches in the party room before the ballot, Mr Nelson gave it his best shot when he called for the spill on Monday night and made what those present thought was without doubt clearly the most impassioned of his career.
The party will now go out of its way to ensure that he is rewarded for his service, particularly in taking the leadership after the election loss and doing his best in the most difficult of times.
His loyalty and courage will not be forgotten.
Mr Turnbull gave a strong speech to the party room after his victory in which he made two main points, that the Liberal Party’s values of freedom, independence and self-reliance were both good and popular and in the Australian spirit, and that the next election was very winnable for a party with a positive agenda that was not prepared to wait for the government to lose.
He made it clear that the party will not adopt a “small target” strategy.
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SACKADEMICS
Tim Blair
It’s an arts apocalypse at Melbourne University:
Up to 20 senior academics could be sacked from Melbourne University’s embattled arts faculty by the end of the year, in a cut designed to save about $2.1 million.
Embattled arts academics earn $105,000 per year. For talking to kids with emotions hair about Camus.
The troubled arts faculty has already weathered the loss of 24 professional and six academic staff via voluntary redundancies this year. That exit followed last year’s departure of 24 academic staff from the faculty, a move that cut wages by $4.5 million, to $43.2 million this year.
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STILL TOGETHER
Tim Blair
Pravda‘s Timothy Bancroft-Hinchey keeps the bird alive:
As regards Bush, well, one has only to go to the Bushisms website and the man comes across as a vapid and abject joke. True, he looks pretty good holding a plastic turkey and does appear to have the ability to improvise with kids on the White House lawn when left alone with them, appearing to be on the same intellectual level. Kind of like a retarded uncle who hangs around the ranch saying inanities but who nobody ever takes seriously.
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TELEBAMA
Tim Blair
Barack Obama and his loyal running mate – ol’ teleprompter – continue on the campaign trail:
The Illinois senator used a teleprompter at both his Colorado events Monday — making for a particularly peculiar scene in Pueblo, where the prompter was set up in the middle of what is normally a rodeo ring.
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THE BEAT GOES ON
Tim Blair
John McCain’s heart has completed about 1,800,000 successful beats since he named Sarah Palin as his running mate. The politico-commentary community sweats on a failed heartbeat:

• “John McCain put the former mayor of a town of 9,000 with zero foreign policy experience a heartbeat away from the presidency.”

• “Is this really who the Republican Party wants to be one heartbeat away from the Presidency?”

• “I’m stunned (and insulted as a citizen) that McCain feels he can place a heartbeat away from the Presidency a hard-core creationist with NO foreign policy experience or even positions.”
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AFTER THE MOMENT
Tim Blair
“This was the moment when the rise of the oceans began to slow,” promised Obama, “and our planet began to heal!” Let’s check on all that Obamatastic slowing and healing:
Results of a program using Aspen’s Canary Initiative to sell carbon offset credits to Democratic National Convention attendees are a little underwhelming.
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ELECTORATE WOOED
Tim Blair
American voters are stupid – stupider than everybody! – according to a Democrat blogger:
Nobody is more stupid than an American voter … Obama tried to treat these morons like adults and it’s killing him and us.
NYT columnist Bob Herbert agrees:
While watching the Sarah Palin interview with Charlie Gibson Thursday night, and the coverage of the Palin phenomenon in general, I’ve gotten the scary feeling, for the first time in my life, that dimwittedness is not just on the march in the U.S., but that it might actually prevail.
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COMMON SCENTS
Tim Blair
“Are you an elitist?” asks Mark Morford, fixated as usual on various probing devices. He’d have done better to ask Eduardo A. De Oliveira, who writes:
In Manchester, during Obama’s speech, I saw families yearning for a new direction. I saw diversity mixing peacefully at Veterans Memorial Park. Hope was in the air. The rally sounded like a student council meeting, with shouted “yeahs” and “that’s rights.” It smelled like a rock concert.
More likely that it sounded like a rock concert and smelled like a student council meeting. De Oliveira contrasts the peaceful Obama “vibe” (just for you, Morford!) with vile NASCAR materialists John McCain recently mixed with:
Sunday in Loudon, McCain spoke briefly at the Sylvania 300. Jackets with logos announced a materialistic aura, as NASCAR fans lined up to get free stuff. It smelled like burgers and fries.
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WITHDRAWING WITHDRAWN
Tim Blair
Amir Taheri reports:
While campaigning in public for a speedy withdrawal of US troops from Iraq, Sen. Barack Obama has tried in private to persuade Iraqi leaders to delay an agreement on a draw-down of the American military presence.

According to Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari, Obama made his demand for delay a key theme of his discussions with Iraqi leaders in Baghdad in July.
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REDUCE GLOBAL BRAINING
Tim Blair
Becoming a vegetarian will reduce your carbon meatprint and stop global warming instantly, according to Science. But it will also reduce something else:
Scientists have discovered that going veggie could be bad for your brain—with those on a meat-free diet six times more likely to suffer brain shrinkage.
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FRIENDS QUOTED
Tim Blair
Interestingly, Obama’s latest ad doesn’t directly target alleged McCain deceit. Instead, it cites criticism of that alleged deceit by Democrat pundits – including leading plouffer Joe Klein. If these ads didn’t work the first time (when they were provided free of charge) why does the Obama campaign think they’ll work now?
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LOOKING CRITICALLY AT THE JEW
Tim Blair
Antony Loewenstein – hitmaster! – has written a book about blogging. Which is a little like Uncle Charley’s Big Book of Totally Proven Facts, or Reba Meagher writing about crafting a positive public image. Despite being silenced the last time he hit the publicity trail, Loewenstein gamely submits to a radio interview, with entertaining results:
Loewenstein: [Chuckles] I thought I might get asked that question at some point. Umm ... look, not really ... uh, I think ... umm ... uh, look, in my first book, My Israel Question, obviously I was looking critically at the Jew as you rightly say about how appalling Israel treats the Palestinians and also umm ... Arabs within its own state.
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MOOSEWITCH PROJECT
Tim Blair
Five New York Times reporters penetrate darkest Wasilla, Alaska, seeking information on the Great Northern Moosewitch. Two are eaten by a bear, but the survivors file this harrowing account. Among the things you will learn, according to Tom Smith’s reading:
—Sarah Palin when she was mayor put pressure on the town council to fire the town attorney, whom she did not like, possibly because he was not pro-development enough. I earnestly pray this is not true.

—Sarah Palin often uses lots of notes when she speaks, even going so far as to use tabs and different colors of notecards. This is just so unbelievably tacky and small town I am considering killing myself.

—Not only Governor Palin but members of her staff sometimes use their personal email accounts to do public business. This charge is perhaps the most deeply shocking of all.
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Forget the economy... Labor MP addresses the meaty issues
A Labor MP has spoken out in Parliament over the portion of beef stroganoff serviced to his wife in the staff cafeteria.
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Cathy Freeman's brother dies in car crash
The brother of Olympic gold medallist Cathy Freeman has been killed in a car accident in Mackay in north Queensland.