Gaggle Australia Day: Musings on Rudd at the White House

Most Australians are affected to some degree by what social anthropologists call "cultural cringe", which is a fancy term for an inferiority complex that infuses our national identity. The cringe expresses itself in many ways - parochialism, bravado, humor - but at the root of it is an often unspoken embarrassment about our place in the world order. We act indifferent to other nations' views of us and claim that we're "the best country on earth" (yep, it's not just Americans who say that). Yet deep down, we're desperate for the affirmation of powerful friends. We ridiculed John Howard for being Bush's lapdog, but loved the spotlight the relationship granted. We lapped it up when the President mentioned us - yes, us! - in a State of the Union address.

Suffering from a bit of cultural cringe myself, I was eager to see how Kevin Rudd would behave at the White House today. Would he be a little bit too enthusiastic, like the dorky kid in middle school who gets invited to the cool guy's party? Would he try to be hip by making nerdy policy jokes? I was completely prepared to make snarky remarks about how Rudd looks like a trendy librarian in his designer glasses. On the surface I was ready to mock, but in reality, I was just really excited to see my Prime Minister - yes, one of us! - sitting down with the most talked about man on the planet. Alas, I got to do neither. I watched MSNBC all day to catch a glimpse of the brief Q & A, and the only thing I saw was Rudd in the periphery of a shot while Obama talked about the financial crisis. Admittedly Obama has some incredibly important issues on his plate right now, but I was still a little disappointed. I guess I'll have to store up my excitement about seeing my guy yuk it up America's really, really important guy until next time. Meanwhile, I'll try to stave off my cultural cringe by making my American fiance wear the Australian flag pyjamas my mum bought for him.