>Not necessarily. If the hordes who demonstrate in the streets are a small
>portion of the population, then demonstrations can't be considered a
>measure of popular opinion. And in this case, it looks like the feeling
>that another Howard government could keep mortgage interest rates lower
>than a Labor government dominated all other considerations.
That is how it's being portrayed. I wonder, though, how much this is a convenient explanation useful to most people. Like I said, mortgages aren't what distinguishes those who voted Howard from those who didn't.
I had a conversation with a family member the other night who, talking about his neighbours, said... just the devil you know when things seem uncertain. I don't know, but I'll say that my if my very-conservative-University students are any indication, HOward has this bizarre default status for them. They seem to almost uniformly despise him, but he's like an elderly relative you hate, they do rather seem to think they at least know his measure and place him as boringly wrong more than dangerously wrong.
Catherine