Posted on 10/16/2004 9:00:02 PM PDT by charleston1
Prime Minister John Howard's election victory would boost the confidence of US President George W Bush and his Republican Party, Foreign Minister Alexander Downer said.
Mr Downer agreed Mr Bush, currently embroiled in a hard-fought campaign for re-election on November 2, had probably taken heart from Mr Howard's victory.
But he said it was hard to believe the Australian election result would resonate in the US for more than a day or two.
"I suppose it's much more a question just of a confidence boost for them," Mr Downer told the Nine network.
"If the Australian government had lost the election, I think in the United States and of course very significantly here in our own country, there would have been an enormous amount of commentary that the Australian government lost because it participated in the coalition of the willing.
"So I think perhaps their sense was more one of relief than that the actual victory would project very substantially onto the American political stage."
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Advertisement Mr Downer took a swipe at Mr Bush's Democratic rival John Kerry, who voted to allow the Iraq war to proceed, but has since criticised Mr Bush for taking the US to war.
"He voted for it of course, so if he believes it was an error of judgment now, that's something he needs to sort out himself, it's not a matter for me or for us," Mr Downer said.
But Mr Downer said he was sure the Australian government would have a good relationship with Senator Kerry if he were to win the election.
He said Senator Kerry was committed to keeping US troops in Iraq.
"His policy is to get more countries involved to help in Iraq not to see them turn and flee from Iraq," he said.
"I don't think in terms of the Iraq issue the election of Senator Kerry to the presidency would make any real difference to us."
Yeah! It is a great news for Bush.
To bad the MSM refuse to report on it.
Yep, great news, Definitely not a downer man!
How close were the polls in Howard's race before his election win? I mean, was it expected and how close was the result in the end?
Most polls had the Conservatives up a couple points but as the initial results came in, especially from Tasmania, IIRC, it was immediately obvious that Howard would win the race. In a nutshell, the polls were wrong and it was not as close as predicted.
The story would have been huge if Howard went down to defeat.
Until a week before the election, most polls were either very close or tipped Howard to lose. In the final week, they changed to very close or tipping Howard to narrowly win.
As it was, it was one of the most decisive victories in Australian political history.
Do you have the final results by party?
The absolute final results still aren't in - there's still some absentee votes to be counted.
But as of these evening, the results stand as follows:
Two-Party Preferred Vote (this is designed to take into account minor party preferences directed to the two major parties)
Liberal: 5,472,267 or 52.77%
Labor: 4,898,121 or 47.23%
Breakdown of the House of Representatives (which determines government - bear in mind that Liberal and National parties are in coalition, so their numbers should be counted together).
Liberal: 72
National: 12
Labor: 57
Independents: 3
CLP: 1
Still in Doubt: 5
Of the 5 in doubt seats, four are currently trending Labor (50.25%, 50.09%, 50.07%, 50.01%), one is trending Liberal (50.22%)
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