Peter Ruehl, 1947-2011

Humour is often the most direct path to the truth. Issues dominating the news cycle can be made to seem petty; the powerful made to look vain; the rich, greedy; war, a folly; youth, insecure and vulnerable; love and family paramount.

Peter Ruehl in his satirical column over the past 24 years was a master at finding that truth. He did it in just a few words. Silvio Berlusconi was one of his favourites.

''Silvio is a genuine piece of work - far enough to the right that he can make the entire Fox News network look like a Cuban propaganda machine,'' Ruehl wrote last year in his column for The Australian Financial Review.

...

''Trust is at the heart of a lot of governments' problems these days. Julia Gillard blew it big-time when she introduced the carbon tax; you know, the one she said before the election was off the books. Turns out there's a new set of books.''

He referred to one-time leader of the Liberal Party Brendan Nelson as being ''about as bad-ass as Delta Goodrem trying to rap'' and thought ''Kevin Rudd constantly seems to be doing this rendition of a schoolboy reciting his multiplication tables''.

But he was equally critical of US politics and business, writing during the 2008 presidential election campaign that ''Palin has been sounding like a Miss America contestant who's been asked about nuclear fission. Even conservative commentators were questioning whether she could walk and chew moose meat.

''And Biden? I've always liked him, even if, when you'd ask him for the time, he'd tell you how to make a clock.''

http://www.smh.com.au/national/obituaries/canny-observer-shone-american-light-on-australia-20110413-1de1q.html