jimmyj,
Mate you really haven't got a clue have you. Adsaml mate you are spot on as usual, Australians are legendry for their apathy, most would rather watch The Simpsons than the news, which is why, nobody ever votes for Little Johhny "Bonsai" Howard, deputy sherrif. However he keeps getting in. The average punter wouldn't know their head from their collective toes politically.

jimmyj, if we don't like the rodent, we won't leave, we will just continue to vote against him, and his facist party, untill the balance of a majority of Australians wake up to themselves, and join us to throw him out of office. It has taken them a decade so far, maybe they will realise what the Tories stand for when their pay and living standards get cut even more.

In any case the decade of fear is slowly coming to a close, surely Australians won't be so stupid to give him another three years, God help us all.

Bonsai is a little bush. If you are still out there Winston, yes it is still all a communist plot.

Ten years of this bloke? a dreadfull thing for Australia, he has had a lot of luck and a lot of help from my ALP.
Right now Bill Shortens entry into the house is chalanged and Creans exit is questioned.
My deeply held view and often quoted one that Latham could never win almosr saw me thrown out of the party long before the election proved my point.
The only task the ALP has is to each and every day win ground in middle Australia towards victory ,those within the party who plan for another Howard win are those who put him in the house, another 3 years of lies ?please no!

John Howard,no regrets about the war against Iraq,as he believed what he was told?,then I read about the AWB,and his version,now he wants the voters to believe what he says about the AWB is the truth,now who is so ignorant to believe his CRAP,I do know who,and they are the suckers that support the liberal/nationalist coalition,known as the Howard government.

Id rather him than most of you, he has adapted into a strong leader. Nobody is perfect, everyone tells lies so dont kid ourselves, at least his heart is in the right place, with his percieved good for our country coming before all else.

Give him a break, i hope to be as fit and alert as him at his age, this bloke works 16 hour days and has done for 10 years, give him a break.

I dont vote for any party, i vote for strong individuals. Surprisingly, he has moulded to be one of them, as is his dedication.

Good work Johnny, now say sorry.

jimmyj

I see you have avoided giving a straight answer to a straight question. Much like John Howard.

So let me refer you to a number of polls which show that a majority of Australians believe he was dishonest in relation to WMDs, AWB, Children overboard.

Now, since most Australians think he has been dishonest, yet they have elected him 4 times, I think this is a pretty strong case to support my generalisation that Australians don't care that he is a liar.

The argument that they didn't like the alternative(s) doesn't hold water, in my view. Everyone has the alternative of spoiling the ballot paper if nobody on the list is acceptable. People voted FOR Howard. He didn't get in by default.

Your simple formula is incorrectly formatted in relation to my original comments. I said:

The uncoolest thing about Howard is that he is a liar.
The uncoolest thing about Australians is that they don't care.

I stand by those comments, and have established a valid case for them.

Yes it is a generalisation. But it generally holds true. To format your suggested formula correctly try the following:

the x thing about the Irish is that they are Catholics
the y thing about the Italians is that they like Pasta

x, y or z can be anything you want. Remember this web site is "On line OPINION".

It is my opinion that the fact that Australians generally don't care that Howard is a liar is uncool. If that upsets you, that's a shame. Give me evidence, rather than abuse, to support your assertion that it is "a racist generalisation".

I think most Australians prefer not to think about it, because when they are confronted with the fact that they have on multiple occasions elected a liar as their leader, then they are confronted with the question "How important is honesty to you?".

And if we go around telling migrants that they must not be "un-Australian" we need to be clear about what it is to be Australian. Where does honesty rate on the definition of "Australian values"?

AMSADL,

Great post. Perhaps a referendum asking "How important is honesty to you?" to help establish just what 'values' the majority of Australians hold true.

If our leaders lead by example - just what do recent migrants make of our values?

On subject of "cool"

While "uncool" is humourous (picture Rick Moranis as Howard in movie) it isn't threatening, these days everyone is so easily threatened (just look how easily some posters react) that Howard appears to be a safe option.

Latham never appeared 'safe', although I would not go so far as to describe him as 'cool'. He was just never an alternative. Neither is Beazley.

I agree that overall Howard has succeeded because of his ordinariness - just as Michelle Grattan stated. Perhaps Howard could be described as the Steven Bradbury of Aussie politics - when all your opponents are flat on their backs, all you have to do is dodge.