“One morning in his tenth year as prime minister, John Winston Howard awoke in the master bedroom of Kirribilli House to realise that he had become not only omnipotent but invincible.”

At last, the secret is out. Mungo McCallum was sleeping with John Howard! We all know that that McCallum is brilliant, but even he could not possibly know what JH realised, in his own bedroom, if he wasn’t there with him.

I always thought that Mungo was a leading Howard-hater. You can never tell!

Leigh,

It was all just a bad dream. You should never talk about those nasty 'Howard-Haters' before you go to bed.

Go back to sleep, old feller. Yes, I'll look. No, there's no HH's under the bed, I promise. I'll switch the alarm off and you can a nice sleep-in until 2011.

Ah yes what a relief. What a broad and deep range of interests Howard has developed and is now able to pursue, I hope he golf's himself into oblivion.
Mungo, Janet had the master bedroom.
Bruce Haigh

Well Mungo you still have the master touch.

Well the Howards overreached themselves. People had finally had enough of the lies, damn lies and stuff. We are merely left with GST for the rest of our lives, and then our kids will pay GST on the funeral.

Wouldn't it be fun to read over the things the journalists wrote about Howard!!.

He was said over and over to be cunning - clever- a good economic manager??

I only wish we had better journalists worth the name, and fewer smarmy self-congratulating monkey-like creatures. It wasn't til the Chaser boys ripped into APEC that we started to see what a colossal waste of money it was - and all supposed to show Howard as a world leader.

Now he is gone, his very seat taken by Maxine McKew. The second Prime Minister in a entury to lose his own seat. And the Libs are in a hell of a mess, oh dear. Poor things. The Howard Legacy.

Thanks again Mungo and the few journos who are worth the name.

The next time I see something written about a political situation by Mungo McCallum I'll automatically know his personal bias will be involved in any position he adopts and I'll view his future articles as opinion not fact.

Some reputation for a 'reporter'.

John Winston Who?

Mungo MacCallum, I believe, has painted an accurate picture of how the last term would have looked and felt to Howard before Rudd toppled Beazley.

Howard was indeed starting to look invincible for a while there and I myself was starting to wonder if we were about to become a one-party country as some posters on OLO would seem to (undemocratically) prefer. It appears some of us don't believe that governments should ever be held accountable for anything, or be reminded from time-to-time that complacency and arrogance are simply unacceptable.

I note though, that so far, Mungo's detractors in this thread haven't been able to give any constructive critisism, or point out to us why he is wrong.

Throwing around terms like “Howard Haters” and questioning the credibility of the author is not an argument. Nor is questioning the authors bias until you can explain why your bias is more credible. Oh that's right, Mr Howard, even in all his complacency and lack of fresh ideas towards the end, was a good economic manager *snigger*.

Take note readers, you can refer to Rudd as “Krudd” and such, use all the childish little insults you like. But speak a word against against Howard and you're out-of-line, because... you just are.

AJ

I don't claim to be a professional commentator nor reporter. That's why I'm credible. I also have no hesitation in proclaiming my bias. Mungo doesn't.

Christ that's rich. Did I see you complain about terms such as 'little johnnie', 'honest john', 'little rodent', liar, etc and refer to them as childish. Hell no ... you've only ever had one eye.

I personally shall recall Saint Kevin 'ear wax' Rudd as the drunken christian who faced the sinners in scooters. Good god Howard took years to earn his nicknames but Rudd only weeks and look how long it took to get the dirt on Malcolm.

That was Scores Keith and Rudd was only there for 15 minutes over 4 years ago. If you look at the pretty pictures of the bar he was in you will not see any naked girls and if you did so what?

As for the ear thing - get over it. 1 million people are not dead because of any decisions Rudd has taken, 4.5 million are not homeless and 8 million starving. And that is just the hell created in Iraq by the coalition of liars and mass murdering war criminals.

Keith,

Your post reeks of sour grapes and your tone is like that of a child stamping his feet because he didn't get what he wanted at the election.

<<I don't claim to be a professional commentator nor reporter. That's why I'm credible.>>

I wasn't attacking anyone's personal credibility. I was questioning the credibility of the opposing views.

<<I also have no hesitation in proclaiming my bias. Mungo doesn't.>>

I certainly didn't see Mungo deny his bais in the article. What's he supposed to do? Start his articles with: "Hi, I'm Mungo and I have a left-leaning bias..."

<<Christ that's rich. Did I see you complain about terms such as 'little johnnie', 'honest john', 'little rodent', liar, etc and refer to them as childish.>>

Point taken about the name calling. Although I don't usually like to take-part in name calling myself, I'm willing to let it slide in Howard's case considering the mendacity and divisiveness of the man.

<<Hell no ... you've only ever had one eye.>>

Now that's the pot calling the kettle black if I ever did hear it. Only this time, the pot hasn't known the kettle long enough to make such a statement.

<<I personally shall recall Saint Kevin 'ear wax' Rudd as the drunken christian who faced the sinners in scooters.>>

What an interesting and melodramatic choice of words.

By using the term “drunken”, it sounds like you're trying to create a image of Rudd slumped on the sidewalk, passed-out, with a bottle of whiskey in one hand and a pack of smokes in the other. I hardly see how a drunk night out on the town constitutes such a glamorous description. And besides, if the manager of the club is to be believed, Rudd got out as soon as he realised where he was anyway.

<<Good god Howard took years to earn his nicknames but Rudd only weeks and look how long it took to get the dirt on Malcolm.>>

And this shows that Howard is a better person, does it? If not, then what is your point?

Bring on the several by-elections that Costello, Downer, Ruddock, McGuaran et al are likely to create.

The first face-to-face Morgan Poll since Labor won the Federal election finds ALP primary support at 49.5% (6.1% above its election result), compared with L-NP primary support at 34% (8.1% below its election result) and Greens 10.5%.

On a two-party preferred basis the ALP is at: 60.5% to the Coalition's 39.5%, a 21% lead.

The proportion of Australians saying Australia is going in the “right direction” is now 64%, up 10% since election eve. Only 16.5% think the country is “seriously heading in the wrong direction”. Leigh et al please take note.

Gary Morgan is quoted as saying that the ALP will lead the Coalition easily for at least the next few months. "...Brendan Nelson and his colleagues need to understand...the reasons why they lost the election, especially the role the Reserve Bank (RBA) played."

While the Coalition remains in denial - and in the hands of the conservative extreme of the political spectrum - it's got Buckleys of making any kind of recovery. The use of the Coalition's residual majority in the Senate to block reforms such as WorkChoices would be catastrophic for the Coalition.

Good lord

Mungos drawn out denigrations of John Howard earns praise but a little jibe at the patron saint of ear wax and lap dancers earns all sorts of condemnation, defence and denials.

I hope you all notice I didn't have the need to defend John Howard. Why do you people have the unhealthy need to do so of Rudd and his behaviour? Strange...

I'll say this for Rudd he did extremely well for us at Bali. No commitments and no targets... and he's cheered for saving the world again. John Howard couldn't have done better in Bali.