[lbo-talk] Meanwhile in the upcoming Australian (s)election....

[Grant Lee]

> The latest poll will worry the Government but it has
> come back from worse positions. Labor led by a bigger
> margin for much of 2001, briefly by 60 per cent to the
> Government's 40 per cent and Mr Beazley was the
> preferred leader for four months.

That par was what stuck out for me: while there is no doubt that the Labor
Party is reaping the benefits of the cyclical ebb and flow of swinging
voters, there is a long, long time to go yet, in political terms. It appears
that Latham only has to play a straight bat to win, but some people probably
put their houses on Beazley to win last time round. What happened? The
engineered hysteria about a handful of asylum seekers on a Norwegian
freighter, followed in close succession by 9-11....slam dunk to John Winston
Howard, who has the street smarts and cunning of a Nixon --- a politician he
closely resembles, IMO --- without the recklessness. We may have "Honest
John" to kick aournd for some time yet.

Grant.