Rudd always looked very low status.
He always looked shakey.
In a way, this was Abbotts problem too.
If you come to politics from a business background, then you really need to understand "who you are" and from years of grinding it out in business, you get a very rock solid idea, deep in your core, deep in your being of "this is me".
But for Rudd or Abbott or many other career politicians, you dont get that brutal training . You just arent rock solid, you have a sandy foundation.
This is why they waffle.
In business, if you waffle, you get brutally punished, you get brutally punished by the markets and its relentless.
This is why , a good solid foundation in business is almost a pre-requisite to being a good performer as a leader. I suppose someone who had come up through the military would be similarly well equipped.
I just cant picture Rudd or Abbott in buiness or in the military (though Tony would probably be ok). They lack that ability to be a hard closer, an executor, they would be mercilessly destroyed in the real world.
The fact Rudd thinks he is fit to work at the UN and the fact they might even take him speaks volumes about the irrelevance of the UN. If you put Rudd in a section of 10 men in the army reserve, they would not feel him the best choice to lead. But he thinks he can run the planet. Oh deary me