澳总理候选人吃耳垢？！

Kevin Rudd twists in his ear with his left index finger

Footage apparently showing the man tipped to become Australia's next prime minister eating his own ear wax has proved a hit on Internet video sharing website YouTube.

The clip of  Labor Party leader Kevin Rudd has been posted three times on the YouTube.com website and attracted more than 200,000 web browsers.

While Rudd enjoys a massive opinion poll lead heading into the November 24 election, the news website news.com.au suggested the footage "could do more damage to (his) election chances than any policy blitz".

It shows Rudd sitting on the backbenches in the Australian parliament while a colleague delivers a speech in the foreground, meaning it must date from before 2003, when he was elevated to the front bench.

As his colleague speaks, Rudd appears to gaze around in a bored manner before inserting his left index finger into his ear, twisting it a number of times then placing it into his mouth and chewing.

Washington Post blogger Emil Steiner picked up on the footage this week, describing it as "stomach churning".

"Whether Rudd is a habitual ear wax user or merely a recreational one should be irrelevant," Steiner wrote.

"The question is whether a man with so little savvy for the cameras surrounding him is fit to hold his nation's highest office. And that is a question Australians will have to answer for themselves."

One YouTube poster said Prime Minister John Howard's government should use the footage in an election advertisement, while others claimed Howard supporters had posted it in an attempt to dent Rudd's popularity.

"This happened eight years ago, funny how it only came back up within one month from an election," user 26Samuel26 said.

Another user ck867 said Rudd's apparent gaffe would not affect how people voted.

近日，一段澳大利亚总理候选人吃耳垢的视频“轰动”YouTube视频网站。

澳大利亚工党领袖陆克文（译者注：陆克文是个“中国通”）这段吃耳垢的视频在YouTube上出现了三次，已经吸引了20多万的点击量。

澳大利亚总理大选将于下月24日举行，陆克文在民意调查中遥遥领先，澳大利亚news.com.au新闻网站称，这段录像“对于陆克文竞选成败的影响甚于任何政策攻击”。

从录像的画面上可以看到，当时陆克文坐在议会的后排座位上，他的一个同事正在前面发言。由此可以推定这段录像应该拍摄于2003年以前，因为陆克文在2003年得到提拔，坐到了议会前排的位置。

陆克文在这位同事发言时百无聊赖地左顾右盼，然后，他将左手的食指伸进耳朵，在里面掏了很多下，然后把掏出来的东西放进嘴里嚼了起来。

《华盛顿邮报》的博客写手埃米尔．斯坦纳于本周看了这段视频后发表评论说，这段录像“令人反胃”。

他在博客中写道：“究竟是陆克文有吃耳垢的癖好，还是仅仅出于无聊，这都不重要。”

“问题在于一个对摄像机如此不敏感的人能否当一个国家的最高领导人。这可是澳大利亚人需要考虑的问题。”

YouTube的一位网友发贴称霍华德总理应在他的竞选宣传广告中利用这段录像，而另一些网友则认为这是霍华德总理的支持者为打击陆克文的人气而搞的鬼。

网友26Samuel26说：“这是八年前的事了，而它偏偏在离大选只有一个月的时候冒了出来。”

网友ck867说，陆克文的这段录像不会影响选民的态度。