The Australian Election...

The image makers went to town on Johnny and Pete. Instead of that "I don't comprehend, but I hope you think I'm concentrating and thinking" frown Howard usually wears, he starts poncing around with a ridiculous looking grin, trying to convince us he has a sense of humour and a sunny disposition. Yeah, right!
And the smirk delivered what he thought was a brilliant barb at the opposition at yesterday's policy launch, and against all instinct worked very hard at suppressing the famous annoying smirk. Howard's grin is a ridiculous looking failure, but yes, Pete does look much better, more believable and likable without the smirk.
Johnny lost a great opportunity to win hearts and votes by looking bewildered instead of kneeling down and showing compassion when his minders bumped that poor woman to the floor in that shopping centre.
I am amazed that Labor has totally let the possibly treasonous AWB "forgets" out of this election campaign, because national propriety DOES matter.
I loved a comment in the the Melbourne rag that puts "me too" squarely back in the Lib camp because Johnny "me too"s right up Georgie.
I guess the tactics in this election are all about the future, which would be fine if we didn't have our heads buried deep in the sand pretending global warming catastrophe is somewhere deep in the future. After all, we've already had Katrina, the Mexican floods, the supertides in the UK, and a drought and water shortages in Oz that by this time next year will bite much harder than interest rate rises or housing affordability.
Johnny will be more than right, about moving from a welfare state, when he will be able to say, "why should we feed you?" and us being an opportunity society, as long as one is the owner of a fleet of water tankers.
I would like to know which Minister has heavy investments in Childcare centres, a smidgeon of intelligence based on looking at past experiences would scream that giving the money direct to the entrepreneurs won't reduce costs to the parent, but will act as a gift, a padding, to the operators.