Global Post: "Australians set to cast judgment on their American "head of state"'

[pampango]

http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/regions/asia-pacific/110324/australia-sydney-america-oprah-winfrey-elections

Meet Kristina Keneally, one of the most unlikely political leaders in Australian history.

Born in Las Vegas, raised in Ohio, married to an Aussie, Keneally is the premier — equivalent to governor — of New South Wales, the state of which Sydney is the capital. And she’s a one-off. No woman has led Australia’s biggest state before. (It’s a first and probably a last for Toledo, too.)

She is only 42. She’s been an Australian citizen a mere 11 years and speaks with a trans-hemisphere twang unique in local politics. (Imagine even a hint of an Australian accent emanating from, say, the governor’s mansion in Albany.) The camera loves her. She’s marketable, as pundits would put it. In the pubs they’d likely settle on “pretty.”

Into this mess two years ago came Keneally, the fourth party leader since 2005, and largely unknown. She was branded a puppet of party power brokers, but declared: ''I am nobody's puppet, I'm am nobody's protege, I am nobody's girl.''

There was much media cynicism, but, unexpectedly, the public took a shine to the Toledo tyro. Her personal approval ratings were dazzling. Keneally’s challenge was to use her own popularity to fuel a broader government revival. She has tried everything, including a public embrace with U.S. talkshow queen Oprah Winfrey during her Australian visit in December.


The iconic Opera House sails in Sydney, the capital of
News South Wales which goes to the polls this weekend
to pass judgment on American Kristina,
who leads the governing Labor Party.

[stockholmer]

1. NSW Labor is toast

http://www.crikey.com.au/nsw2011/