John Howard has had a dream run.... Here's why!

Look who Labor put up against him

1. Keating ... say no more
2. Beazley .... A drover's dog had more chance he lost the GST election
3. Latham..... Desperation gone mad

Are Labor strategists up to the task?

Howard has Australia in a war that won't be won... Now he has announced that if we strategically withdraw it is a defeat. I bet the soldiers doing their duty love that line. How can a strategic withdrawal be a defeat Johnnie?

The Govt lied about the GST not being on Education ... it's not on school fees but it's on everything that accompanies eductation. Another whack in the guts for families.

Doesn't the GST raises about $7 billion dollars mostly from battler families as businesses can claim it back?

The Govt gave $10 tax cuts to lowincomeearners and over $100 tax cuts to the wealthy. Howard's economics means we can't afford to give tax cuts to the most needy in our society, the low income earners and young people battling to raise a family.

Howard has increased the debt of every person that can't afford to pay their HECS up front. Just what we need young people starting their lives with huge debts.

Australia interest rates are highby world standards again disadvantaging families... The USA and Japan have been down to nearly zero.

Although Australia has been in drought for the majority of Howard's rule he has only just started doing something about it.

Howard presided over the AWB scandal and did the SGT Shultz "I know nothing" routine.

Howard (a lawyer) has allowed a misguided Aussie citizen to rot in camp x-ray without charges for over 5 years. Which part of a fair trial and natural justice doesn't this lawyer understand?

This guy has allowed children to be psychologically damaged in refugee camps ... and allowed at least one Australian citizen to be detained and another one deported.

Mr Rudd clean out your strategists and get some that can help you win. And please put justice back into our society.

Don't forget.

Beasley actually won an election in terms of votes but the system didn't allow him a victory.

Beasley would have probably won again if it hadn't been for 9/11.

Latham had too many skeletons in his cupboard. I doubt that Rudd has any of significance.

Howard's chickens (Iraq, Hicks, work laws, education, foreign debt) are finally coming home to roost.

Logic ,the only thing that went wrong in Iraq is that the locals were too crippled by their religion to progress to democracy.Peace must come to Iraq or there will be another world war over energy.

You and others will not realise how good a leader John Howard is,until we have a few terms of Labor economic vandalism.Oh how the memories are so short. You with your leftist comfort rethoric,have never had it so good.

Arjay

I am no leftist, in fact I run my own business. I supply manufacturing industry.

Much of what went bad in Iraq was due to entering a battle without doing adequate home work beforehand.

Howard has left us with a diminished education system, reduced support for manufacturing industry and allowed us to develop a massive foreign debt. We now have a skill shortage. Keating for all his faults at least got a level of manufacturing industry going. He also realised the importance of nearby countries to our life and economy. Neither our prime minister or our foreign minister can speak a language other than English, they are so insular.

So much for a globalised world! Howard is good with words but poor on actions. And people are starting to realise that.

Logic the foreign debt was there well before Keating.Unless we develop a set of international rules for business to operate under,countries like China and India will continue to take our jobs unless we are willing to live like them.

John Howard cannot set the agenda.To put tarrifs on all our industries will see our living standards fall.Globalisation is a double edged sword and we in the land of OZ will have to work smarter and harder to survive.I have a lot of criticism for this govt in respect for R&D and supporting our home grown industries,but Labor are a bunch of no talent wonders dominated by union power that represents very few Australians these days.We are between a rock and a hard place.Thank God for the boom in China and India.

More Newspolls and more AC Nielsen, Morgan/Crikey polls, etc etc. How about a new take on them?

The polls show Kevin Rudd enjoying a honeymoon with the electorate, but not his party! How could this be? I tend to use Newspoll as they are regular and the methodology less prone to wild gyrations. The 68% approval for Rudd is slightly higher than the Latham top of 66% and he is preferred over Howard as PM. But the ALP party vote actually fell (1%) and the ALP two party preferred (TPP) also fell (2%). The ALP vote is built on cannibalising the Green vote, the total ALP and Green vote is typically 46%, it has hit 52% and 51% in February. The TPP vote fall is encouraging for the Coalition which is making up ground and bounced back from the ALP’s beginning of the school year education spike; and the Coalitions line that Rudd and the ALP are trying to be all things to all people eg Iraq ‘withdrawal lite’, US alliance, climate change etc.

The media gave Howard a hard time on the Obama comments. But the media appears to have forgotten that Bush and Democrat Kerry both attacked Latham over his Iraq 2004 withdrawal policy. Howard may yet astonish the media and the public by turning the ALP Iraq policy into a negative, of opportunism, and inconsistency (in light of the other Australian deployments in Afghanistan, and a withdrawal that leaves two thirds of our commitment still in Iraq). Rudd may be at his peak, he is clever but if he has peaked early, he needs to keep up momentum for the remainder of the year and possibly a long campaign too. It is hard work.

Howard has been in similar situations before. In April 1998 he trailed Beazley 31/39 as preferred PM and was down 35/52 on satisfaction-dissatisfaction. He was also down in May 2001 35/39 with Beazley, and 28/64 on satisfaction-dissatisfaction. He won both elections held within months of both.