How embarrassing it is for Australia to see Senator McCain breaking from his presidential campaign so as to get back to work dealing with the resulting economic conditions of a financial market fallout.

While at the same time our Prime Minister, who obstinately continues to sit in the back row of a forum that will have little consequence on current economic events, attempts a puff job by speaking to long-since retired Secretaries of State for the United States of America. It seems that this is supposed to stand in proxy for management expertise at home.

It has descended into pathos, it is looking very peculiar, the Australian public are onto it, it is reflected in the polls and the only question that needs to be asked is "Mr Rudd, what are you up to?"

Why didn’t Mr Rudd send someone outside the inner circle of senior executives so that he could remain at home, concentrating on the inner circle of Australia's financial sector? Why isn't the government establishing a plan to mitigate the effects of the current global circumstances while creating a strategy to deal with the consequences of what may happen next if the United States' access to Asian credit is curtailed?

This is not simply a financial sector issue, it is the complete package geopolitical issue and the only country he needs to worry about right now is Australia. The best way to manage issues about Australia is by being in Australia.

While perhaps it warrants an easy let down, at this point in time no one gives three fifths of five eights about what Mr Rudd has to muse about cures for global warming. Senator McCain, Henry Paulson and just about everyone else on the planet has something more pressing on their minds.

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