Tuesday 15 May 2007

It'll soon shake your windows....

...and rattle your walls.

You know the rest.

And they are.

I'm just now watching Little Johnny get roasted by Kerry The Man...again.

He's running scared and I am going to make a bold prediction.

I hope I'm not wrong...but, fuck it.

In five years time everyone will look back on the Howard years and wonder where it all went wrong. Why did they lose the October 2007 election when the economy was going so well? Why weren't people scared anymore?

The generally accepted answer will be Workchoices.

The Libs let finally let their masters and servants ideology overtake their common sense. they were so determined to break the unions they lost sight of the main point - Unions are made up of workers, and workers vote.

All the rest was window dressing. It was not quite the socialist awakening of 2007, but it got the bastards out.

That's my call.

5 comments:

Saturday Night Fiver said...

Mistah Howard ... he dead.

In five years no one will be remotely interested in him; in twenty his premiership will be considered by a few historians as a period of lost opportunities. In fifty years he'll be "The Longest Serving Australian Prime Minister after Menzies". That is the Wisden view of history, which ultimately is how he wants to be remembered.

Why will he lose? The public are exhausted by him; the only thing you can do to save yourself from such a fate is to have new ideas, and Howard is not a clever politician ... he has a few trump cards he plays regularly. Certainly he never had a new idea in his life; all the ideology was just tosh appropriated where necessary.

Workchoices is an issue for the traditional Labor voting base, but that isn't enough for a swing to government; the swing is from people who once did vote for Howard. The pathetic nuclear debate and frankly embarrassing rhetoric in "Australia Rising" (souffle twice, he hopes) is just a desperate attempt to mask the fact that the Libs are without ideas. Keating's problem was that he had too many ideas, and the public were exhausted with being dragged into an enlightened age. Remember too that the economy was in good shape for the ALP in 1996.

Anonymous said...

Yay!

I'll remain slightly worried in the ability of the Australian public to vote against him right up until his concession speech though. Just slightly. I want to believe in them but I've been wrong in the past...

mangoman said...

It is still way too early to call.

The heartening thing though is that Howard is playing it so badly at the moment. He has now decided that looking like he has a sense of humour is the go. I predict you will see him with fixed grin for a while now. Be interested in how he keeps it going while he becomes more desperate and vicious.

I agree with snf. People have had enough and just don't want him there anymore. All of the baggage of the years is now coming back to haunt him. Non-core promises, poll driven policies, backflips, lies and half truths along with the populism all have upset someone. With any luck there are enough of them to make the change.

I do have this gnawing fear that some of the newer voters will go for the devil they know at the last minute.

Saturday Night Fiver said...

Another thing: it seems a small news story, but the way Howard responded to the "How Could She" Telegraph headline could be as big of a thorn in his side as Keating's unfortunate "Get a job!" remark. Heartlessness might, just might, be going out of fashion.

Nabla said...

True enough.

I did get accused of jinxing, but there's no reason not to call it now, I reckon.

As long as they don't do a Carlton.

I, too, have a fear that the apathetic young folk will vote the wrong way.

Solution? Organise a few free concerts - Rock The Vote Style - with a broad appeal (by that I mean you'll have to include crap music, too) to get the young punters in.

Remeber that, although Rudd is dull as dogshit, Howard really is a comical old man.

Enough targeted messages to the young folk pointing out the Liberals are a party for boring, old dorks and Channel Nine watching suburbanites will sort out their vote.