Rudd's human face
Lots of people have been in touch from Britain commending the leadership of Prime Minister Kevin Rudd during what was unquestionably one of the most difficult weeks in his country's 108-year history. 
Breaking down repeatedly as he was overcome by sadness and anger, the leader who appeared on the breakfast programmes last Monday morning in the immediate aftermath of the weekend's fires was unrecognisable from the technocrat with the almost robotic turn of phrase who parliamentary sketch-writers - and foreign bloggers - have found so easy to caricature.
Whether it was comforting the victims or expressing outrage at the possibility that some of the fires were allegedly started deliberately, Kevin Rudd displayed a human side that defied his reputation as a passionless automaton.
Shortly after John Howard became the prime minister in 1996, he, too, confronted a national calamity of shocking scale: the Port Arthur massacre in which 35 people were killed at the historic former convict settlement in Tasmania after a gunman, Martin Bryant, run amok.
In its aftermath, Mr Howard found words to articulate the anger of the nation and famously stood down the gun lobby, which included many of his coalition partner's rural constituents, at considerable personal risk to himself.
One of the lasting images of the Howard years is of the former prime minister addressing an outdoor rally of gun-owners dressed in a bulky bullet-proof vest, having received credible threats minutes beforehand that a gunman in the crowd was intent on assassinating him.
After the Port Arthur massacre, a tragedy that unfolded less than 50 days after he had taken office, John Howard was emphatically prime ministerial. Thereafter, his rivals, Kim Beazley, Simon Crean and Mark Latham, found it hard to present themselves to the electorate as plausible alternatives and potentially strong national leaders. He went on to enjoy an almost 11-year political ascendancy.
Kevin Rudd may well have elevated his leadership in a comparable way.
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