Lexi,

In politics, small things change from day to day, the large issues don't. Bligh's broken promise was remembered for 4 years, as will be Juliar's.

As for your non-core quote, this was not made by Howard or anyone in the liberal party. Howard spoke of core promises (ie. fundamental policies) and the left spin masters then inferred that, by extension, there were non core promises. Look it up, with all the multitude of promises broken by labor including core promises such as the "no carbon tax under the government I lead" promise.

To see who has the trust of the people read this poll by the left wing "essential Research"

Dear Bazz,

Thank You for the compliment.

I'm only a human being, not a computer.
But if you think my arguments are equal
to the capacity of a highly intelligent computer
I will take that as a reasoned and logical observation.

Computers that are programmed with the historic,
scientific, and economic data will present unbiased
facts as they exist.

The same computers under a different government will
evaluate and ascertain the facts as they are available
and documented.

Further more my presentations are based on research of
available facts from an unbiased wide variety of sources.

Dear Shadow Minister,

It is impossible to predict with any confidence how
either party will respond to changing circumstances.
This modern fact of political life is a result of
new technology which allows parties to see what
policy responses will
produce an electoral advantage in key marginal electorates.

Our mainstream media are an integer in this process, since
the loudest voices in the dominant outlets play a major
part in shaping the views which will be expressed in
news polls. As Mr Howard indicated - he did not believe
in news polls. And we shouldn't either. We'll have to see
what happens in the lead-up to the election and whether
any protracted slide in poll ratings for Mr Abbott -
will see a nervous party do anything about him.

I've already noticed that the man no longer speaks
"off the cuff," on television but wears glasses and
reads from a speech prepared for him. Just as George W.
Bush did.

Lexi,

Again you are misquoting Howard. He simply pointed out that while the polls were an indication of how voters would vote today, it is not a final arbiter of how they will vote in 18 months, and that there is no unwinnable or unlose-able election. This does not mean that they are of no consequence. Considering that the polls for labor have pretty much been in the upper 20s / lower 30s for more than a year, unless something dramatic changes the outlook is grim for labor. The betting agencies have a coalition win at 80% and labor at 20% which says it all.

I have seen Abbott talk without prepared speeches many times. He is just more careful. Considering that you said that you don't watch him talking (probably only listen to those that support your fantasies), are you in a position to comment?

Dear Shadow Minister,

I do try to listen to Mr Abbott - but because he
keeps going down a base-level political path
I often tend to switch off.

I look forward to the day that he will actually
say something intelligent. Having speeches written
for him, and him reading them may possibly help
him, as they did George W. Bush - for a while
at least.