Bromantic

THE story that President Barack Obama will visit Australia in November was, er, um, broken several weeks ago.

WE hate to break it to you (yes really), but the story that President Barack Obama will visit Australia in November, reported with such heraldic breathlessness by the media yesterday, was, er, um, actually broken by our political editor Dennis Shanahan several weeks ago. The Australian, page one, August 26: "Mr Obama [is] to come to Australia after the APEC leaders' meeting, to be held in the President's home state of Hawaii on November 12-13, as part of a quick regional trip." And with Obama's third-time-lucky visit announced into a maelstrom of speculation about a possible Kevin Rudd return to the big chair, Strewth can't help but wonder whether, by the time the star-spangled President arrives, circumstances may have changed sufficiently to allow a rekindling of the budding bromance that was so cruelly cut short by the faceless and, it seems, heartless men of the Labor Right.

Bob each way

ONE person pleased Obama is coming to town (though we're not entirely sure why) is Greens leader Bob Brown, who declared with customary conviction yesterday: "I am looking forward to meeting the President." The last time a US president was in town (George W. Bush in 2003) Brown took the opportunity to heckle him in parliament over prisoners at Guantanamo Bay. Considering nearly 200 of said prisoners still reside at Gitmo, Brown's enthusiastic response is no doubt causing flutters at the US embassy in Canberra. Despite the heckling, followed by Dubya's uncharacteristically diplomatic comment that "he loves democracy", it is worth recalling that Brown later pushed his way through a phalanx of Liberal MPs to meet the object of his heckles.

Flying high

BUT back to Kevin 747. The Foreign Minister showed just what a trouper he is yesterday by reporting to the Whip's office, a day before he is officially back from sick leave. This was to pre-empt the opposition playing mean on his pair in case he was needed in parliament for the carbon tax. As it turns out, his services weren't required. Not one to linger in the shadows, the former PM starts back with the Ausmin conference in San Francisco, before flying to Mexico and then on to New York to address the UN General Assembly on behalf of the PM. What a guy.

In a twitter

GETTING back to faceless people, the NSW parliamentary press gallery finds itself agog with the indiscreet postings of an anonymous tweeter who calls him/herself the Macquarie Street Observer (@MacqStObserver). Since the account went live last Thursday the rogue poster has targeted political staffers and senior NSW press gallery journalists alike. Pointed tweets have been sent to Channel Nine's Kevin Wilde, the ABC's Quentin Dempster and The Daily Telegraph's Andrew Clennell, leading to speculation that the tweeter could be a disgruntled current or former member of the NSW press gallery. Said a source inside government to The Australian's Media Diary (rather cattily, it must be said): "The press gallery is fascinated by it because they just love to look at themselves." But with tweets such as "it seems two ministerial advisers are becoming very luvvy duvvy in recent weeks" Strewth wonders if dissembling might be more the aim of the game.

Imitating life

THE lines between life and art continue to blur. Tony Jones's look-at-moi comment on ABC's Q&A on Monday night that At Home With Julia is a bit Kath and Kim meets The West Wing was followed shortly afterwards by Barnaby Joyce's comment that the only one who can save Julia Gillard now is British Born Survivor star Bear Grylls. Will the real Julia please stand up?

In English

NOT one to throw stones, glass houses and all that, but this one we couldn't let pass. Sydney Morning Herald parliamentary sketch writer Jacqueline Maley, in an opinion piece yesterday, sought to educate the PM about her use of the English language. "[The PM] has a habit of doubling her adjectives -- using two when one, or none, would do. She is involved in decisions 'personally and directly'; examines policy issues 'appropriately and carefully' and sees things 'very clearly and very precisely'." A for effort. But we think the word Jacqueline was looking for is adverb, not adjective.

Unhappy ending?

ON a more sombre note, New Zealand vertebrate expert Colin Miskelly admitted to ABC Radio yesterday that the most likely reason the transmitter attached to three-year-old celebrity penguin Happy Feet had not been picked up since Friday was because the little fella had ended up on the wrong side of a whale (the transmitter only works when in contact with the water). But despite his dark imagining, Miskelly hasn't given up hope: "He's still carrying a transponder, which is like a microchip you'd put in a dog . . . So it's not impossible that he'll turn up somewhere in future and remind us all that he's not just another penguin." We admire your optimism, Colin.