Mr Ludwig,

You've made me curious... Why not?

Alright let me see…why wouldn’t ol’ smirky Costalotello make a good PM?

Because he’s a pro-expansionist antisustainabilityist to the core.

Cos he’s shown scant knowledge, beyond economic management, of the very wide gamut of issues that we would expect a PM to have a handle on.

There is no indication that he would translate economic gains into improvements on the ground any better than Howard.

There is no indication that he gives the slightest hoot about environmental issues, except where they directly affect economic prosperity.

And most importantly, there is no indication that he sees any particular urgency in addressing peak oil, climate change or sustainability issues.

In short, I think that his type of political philosophy has had its day well and truly, and would be disastrous for Australia, in a time where some pretty radical changes in governance are needed.

Now hold on……..maybe he would be our saviour. If he continued with the same old economic rationalist style of Howard, perhaps he would galvanise the community, and opposition, into the right sort of action…. and come the next election, Labor would put up a much better platform than they have this time around, and kick him out of office and off to Mars or Pluto or somewhere like that befitting his march-of-the-lemmings-towards-the-cliff approach to the management of our nation! /:>|

We must take into account swings are rarely uniform across every seat John Howard is in for a very hard fight to win his seat.
Sunday the 25th could see Costello as PM.
How likely is it we would see a by election to let Howard back? no way.
Conservative may well like Peter he however will not bring lost voters back to his party leadership from him is going to fail.

John Howard has promised his party that if he is elected - he will stay for one, maybe two years as PM before handing over to Costello.

However, yesterday in the news - it was indicated that Howard will definitely not contest the 2010 election - (nominating Costello as his successor - then).
Does that mean that Howard will stay for the full term this time?

Can someone explain - who do we believe? Howard keeps changing his tune. He'll stay, he won't? Maybe? Who are people voting for this time around? Howard or Costello?

Foxy,

My 2 cents worth on the political arena:

- The liberal stance on the PM leaving sometimes and handing over aim to create a mind space amongst voters and also not to commit to anything specific to the public. For example, if Liberals are to lock on Costello, the next set of questions will be Costello's vision, plan, etc...which PC is not ready for.

- I am curious as to why do you believe that a good and talented treasurer will make a good prime minister? The man is a straight shooter but he lacks leadership. My personal hurdle to vote for liberals this time is that Costello never challenged the PM on the role and is rather waiting to be 'given' the job.

- On the ethics side liberals appeared to be as bad as Latham's campaign. Did you watch the scare campaign on TV lately? It tells me they are out of ideas and got nothing to sell.

Peace,

Here's what a well-placed Liberal Party member sent me back in May:

"If you are interested in returning the Coalition to power forward this to your local MP.

"WE CAN PULL SOMETHING OUT OF THE HAT!
The Polls are not looking good. John Howard, Peter Costello and Alexander Downer have all served excellently but the electorate sees them as too familiar there is no charisma no new thinking anymore.

"At the best the Coalition will win by a few seats. John Howard will hand over to Peter Costello or whoever is chosen because of the poor showing of the election, so John\ Howard’s stay will be short.

"At the worst the Coalition will lose. Why because they have run out of ideas and surprisingly they have said so. Would the present Ministers prefer to be in opposition or in power?

"For John Howard to hand over to Peter Costello at the moment will, I believe, actually decrease the vote.

"The Labor Party by 'circumstance' is in a good position. How do you knock the Labor Party confidence and get the voters back on line?

"ANSWER-Hand the Liberal leadership over to Julie Bishop. This will get the women and family voters back on line. She can be used to ease the “work” places changes now seen as a negative to John Howard. This will show that the Liberal Party is ready to forge ahead with new thinking."

Personally, I'd go for the Malcolm Dream Team - Turnbull with Brough as Deputy. If the Liberals are returned, the funeral directors Ruddock and Andrews must go. Abbot can have the Speakership to shut him up for a while.