I think everyone's being a tad harsh on Mr Ariel, though I certainly understand why.

The title and description is rather loaded. In labelling the slide to Rudd 'irrational' and saying that it is steeped in ignorance, he effectively labels all Australians who support Rudd over Howard (which according to the polls, is a majority) as ignorant and foolish for their selection.

So I suppose he can't be too wounded when they return serve - though I suppose certain responses make it easy for Mr Ariel to rationalise his view that it is ignorance that has created this situation.

There are two sides to this - the economic sphere, and the social sphere.
Given that Howard has embraced a 'large l' liberal policy of conservatism on the social matters, it's understandable that a great many Australians will disagree on many issues. I've often thought that while Australia is quite a conservative nation, it is not quite as conservative as it's government in many areas of social policy.

The economic argument is one that has plenty of facets as well - controlling inflation has been at the core of the argument, and fair enough - though the Howard government (partly due to federal-state grievances and the very structure of Australian government responsibilities) has dropped the ball on infrastructure.

Roads, water, health care - these are all in dire form. Technically, these are the responsibilities of the State, but the difficult issue we have, is that the State relies on federal funding for these issues, and we are continually faced with a situation wherein the Federal Government withholds cash until surplus time, then doles it out in a political manner. This won't change under Rudd, but the fact that the government has become a large, high taxing one, is a very rational reason.

There's plenty more reasons I can go into, but this will have to suffice for now...

Rudd’s only policies are to wind back work choices (a step backwards) pull Australian troops out of Iraq (another step back) and to refuses to consider nuclear power as an option (and back we go again)

So basically Rudd is against most things but what is this bloke for? Is he for anything or once he has undone a lot of the liberal party hard won reforms will he just sit around like a stale tub of yogurt waiting for the liberal party to come up with an innovative idea and then cry wolf and hope the Australian public are foolish and uneducated to believe his hyperbole and vote for him again.

Rudd is only going to retrograde Australia.

Lincoln’s only policies are to wind back slavery (a step backwards), to push Union troops out of the North into the South (another step back) and to refuse to consider the dissolution of the Union (and back we go again)

So basically Lincoln is against most things but what is this bloke for? Is he for anything or once he has undone a lot of the slave party’s hard won reforms will he just sit around like a stale tub of yogurt waiting for the slave party to come up with an innovative idea and then cry wolf and hope the American public are foolish and uneducated to believe his hyperbole and vote for him again?

Lincoln is only going to retrograde America

I guess we have all had losses Haygirl. Its a losses world while the great battle is on in the spirit world (Ephesians 6:12-18). Ive had a few losses myself and they hurt. One scripture that pops into mind when I hear of people dying in accidents is Ecclesiastes 9:12... "Moreover, no man knows when his hour will come: As fish are caught in a cruel net, or birds are taken in a snare, so men are trapped by evil times (events included) that fall unexpectedly upon them". This scripture tells us that things do happen. They hit hard and fast without any warning quite frequently. Its in our strength not to get bitter about them and to seek the Lord for His Comfort. If Christianity is a crunch to many peoples thinking, then bring it on anyway. I love the crutch and am no lesser because of The Lord in my life. Inviting Jesus into our lives is the greatest freedom from fear and uncertainty anyone can get. Calling on the Name of Jesus, sincerely, is such a life changing experience...Romans 10:13.

"The irrational slide to Rudd" ?

No, tis the rational slide (repulsion, sprint, escape...) from Howard.

What do we know of poll taking? My knowledge is that it cant be trusted in anyway at all. Throwing down the bones, searching the chicken entrails, staring into the crystal ball...and poll taking. Do you see the similarities? They are all delving into the future without going to the Christian God. Like stats they can be manipulated by asking the right questions. Men manupulating men is what its mostly about. Occult! Its all occult practice. What a terrible, unimaginable waste of time and money.