Julia Gillard's misogyny rant goes viral

US bloggers are saying, “GO JULIA!”

And prominent social media are saying the same.

On Tuesday, Aussie PM Julia Gillard launched herself into an “impassioned 15-minute smackdown” of opposition leader Tony Abbott, during a fiery parliamentary debate.

She accused Abbott of a history of misogyny and sexism that dates back to his student days. The ABC video of her tirade, posted on the ABC news website and YouTube, has had more than 300,000 views, trending up and upwards under the hashtag #smackdown

And it is getting huge applause from bloggers in America, who say that US politics in general – and the presidential campaign in particular – would benefit hugely from a similar dose of vitriol.

Everyone, it seems, agrees that US politicians are too damn polite. Indeed, US entertainment site Salon says that the US should borrow Australia’s Julia, “to take on Congress’s misogynist caucus” after she “skewered” Abbott for “a career’s worth of patriarchal comments.”

Amelia Lester, in the New Yorker, said she wished Barack Obama had displayed the same temper and tenacity in last week’s presidential debate.

“Supporters of President Obama, watching Gillard cut through the disingenuousness and feigned moral outrage of the opponent to call him out for his own personal prejudice, hypocrisy, and aversion to facts, might be wishing their man would take a lesson from Australia,” she wrote.