The tap on Howard's shoulder yesterday became an insistent bashing, only the fact this is and has been a Howard government alone stopped him saying ok.
Yet a change could have worked may well have turned the polls more than some think.
Look away from Costello, he has past his use by date Liberals could do worse than some one like Minchin.
While he is not my leader in waiting he could at least call for a chance while targeting the Howard policy's that he knows hurt them, it was not me!
For some time in posts here I have predicted Howard will back down on workchoices.
It should not surprise those who both know he is a Menzies follower and it once was Bobs way of staying in power.
Howard will follow his mentor steal ALP policy's, finally admit workchoices went too far.
redraft it and much more, his overwhelming problem is few believe him anymore.
Can I invite the threads author to debate the last term of John Howard after the election?
I look forward to conservative Australia defending it lack of moral fiber.

the pro-Costello, anti-Howard campaign being run by some opinion columnist is extraordinary. It just goes to show what an insulated bubble both the government and the media live in if they think those columnists have that much clout.

Does anybody know anybody who makes their decisions based on what Andrew Bolt says? I don't.

I can't wait to see the back of Howard, but the situation we're seeing now is shameful. It's one thing for journalists to ask questions about the leadership, it's another altogether for them to be so directly involved.

Howard should never have given his favourite hacks all those cushy spots on boards. It didn't work as strategy in his culture wars, just gave them more opportunities to meddle in affairs where they have no business meddling.

Whether Howard stays at the realm or another fills his shoes will make no difference at the ballot box. I agree that it would be foolish to swap leaders at this stage given there is no real heir-apparent who is popular or acceptable to the electorate.

First and foremost it will be Coalition far right wing policies and deference to big business which will be their undoing - you can only fool some of the people some of the time. Now that there is the perception of a real alternative in the ALP, Liberals cannot hope to get away with it second time around.

Australia faces the impending disaster of wholesale abandonment of the Constitution.

With apparently relatively recently elected Labor governments in all States and Territories, and in the circumstances of a Federal Labor win at the upcoming elections, what will be to prevent a re-run of the like of the failed 1942 Commonwealth Powers legislative program of referral of State powers to the Commonwealth? See this link for a reference: http://forum.onlineopinion.com.au/thread.asp?discussion=950#16904, and http://forum.onlineopinion.com.au/thread.asp?discussion=950#16889

Election of a Rudd government would be a disaster.

This continual falling away from the Constitution is illustrated right at the moment with the Howard government's Commonwealth Electoral Amendment (Democratic Plebiscites) Bill 2007, which flies in the face of the referendum result of 1988 in respect to the giving of recognition to local government in the Constitution. See current OLO discussion: http://forum.onlineopinion.com.au/thread.asp?article=6343

Significantly, this latest intended departure will have the effect of enhancing the role of the Australian Electoral Commission, and its Central Office in particular, in the "democratic" life of the nation. One hell of a record it has! It was one of the parties that brought the court action that resulted in the gaoling of Pauline Hanson and David Etteridge, effectively for the "crime" of diverting public election funding away from the major political parties. It may be that it is responsible for much worse with respect to the electoral rolls. Make no mistake, it wants to run the whole show!

Return of the Howard government would be a disaster.

So it seems ordinary voting Australia is to be left with nothing but a choice between two evils at the upcoming elections. Could this dreadful Hobson's Choice have been deliberately engineered? More importantly, could there exist a realistic, achievable third option that is not so evil?

If there is, it seems there is but one man who could give us that choice in the time available. His name is Michael Jeffery, Governor-General of the Commonwealth of Australia.

Don't forget the Senate. The only way either major party won't believe in the idea of a mandate is to ensure there is a mix of Greens, Democrats and good independents in the Senate. At least then we will have some semblance of participatory democracy and some oversight, consultation and scrutiny of proposed legislation.

We don't ever want another party to assume a mandate to pass an inherently unfair set of laws like the misnamed WorkChoices ever again.

"Ginx said "whilst everyone is entitled to a point of view, I think it unfortunate that the MODERATOR of this site should express a leaning to either Left OR Right on his own forum." I'm not sure I entirely agree Ginx. Graham's been honest about his political affiliations (unlike many others in public life) and therefore I am able to evaluate his contributions with an awareness of his ideological leanings. We all have a political stance and Graham should be allowed to have his own." (Quote:JohnJ)

I understand you comment JJ; particularly your last line above.

However, I am not taking issue with political leanings, that's par for the course. I take issue with the expression of those leanings on a forum on which one as moderator has to be seen to be totally without bias.

I know that political leaning and bias ARE two different things, BUT I remain of the belief that to be an affective moderator ones own views should be entirely separate from their own forum. It remains the only way to avoid any conflict of interest....;in my view!

I have said elsewhere that OLO is a breath of fresh air for its capacity to treat members as adults;- unless they prove otherwise!!
Modding here is negligible thanks be.
It has been a discovery to find a site that does NOT have bias in moderating.

I hope I'm right about that; that's all