In Lionel Shriver’s 2003 novel We Need to Talk about Kevin, a mother struggles to love her strange child despite the many vicious things he says and does. Something similar has happened with the Australian media and public in coming to terms with the political rebirth of Kevin Rudd. How can someone described by his colleagues as a ‘complete and utter fraud’, a ‘crypto-fascist’ and ‘a psychopath with a giant ego’ regain the highest office in the land after having once been deposed by his own party for serial incompetence?

In his first term as prime minister, Kevin acted in ‘autocratic,...