Prime Minister John Howard, a staunch support of the Tsar's policies concerning Irag and a staunch conservative in Australia, had what the New York Times is calling "a comprehensive defeat". He also lost his own seat in Parliament. The first Prime Minister to ever do that.
Early estimates had the Labor party gaining some 20 seats, to gain a14-seat majority in the 150-seat lower house. Television prediction seven had John Howard suffering the indignity of losing his own seat in the Sydney suburb of Bennelong in parliament to a former television anchor and rookie politician, Maxine McKe
The new Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd, a Labor Party leader, is 50 years old and promises to bring change in order to meet the challenges facing the country. He also is seen quite differently than Howard.
Mr. Rudd’s rather dry image was if anything enhanced by the revelation which emerged shortly before the beginning of the campaign that he had got drunk and visited a strip club when he was on a visit to Scores New York in 2003.
“He seems more personable, approachable,” Marcelle Freiman, a university lecturer with two children, who voted for Mr. Rudd in eastern Sydney said. “He doesn’t seem arrogant yet and I have respect for him.”
I think the word arrogant is telling. It's a reaction to the years where leadership has been, as in the U.S., based on hard-nosed near-authoritarian government that has a mindset of "We know what's good for you better than you do. In a world where things are changing at an extremely fast rate because of technology, people are tired of waddling in the backwaters of antiquated thinking that put restrictions on everything.
Mr. Rudd has made very clear what his priorities are:
He has said his first acts as prime minister will include pushing for the ratification of the Kyoto climate agreement and to negotiate the withdrawal of Australian combat troops from Iraq.
This election is also telling because of what it forbodes for the United States. The seeds were planted with last November's midterm Congressional election. You can see it in the fighting going on in the primary races going on right now. The Republicans running for the presidential nomination are all over the map and seem lost and floundering. The Democrats, on the other hand, are similar in their differences. I'm certain thatif Mr. Bush were running for reelection we would be seeing a very different fight going on in the U.S.
On top of all of this the Tsar has another support problem. A second of his buddies is gone. Poland elected a new Prime Minister also and his actions speak in this headline from HuffPost - PM: Poland to End Iraq Mission in 2008
With the rats leaving the ship in the US [think Karl Rove], talking mouthpieces revealing secrets [Scott McClellan' s book What Happened], and now Australia and Poland no longer supporting the excursion in Iraq, the Tsar must really be having a bad day.
let's keep the momentum going...
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