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A major ally in the war on terror faces an election this fall. Radio listeners in Sydney last week were treated to some good ole Aussie plain talk on the war on terror. “It’s not all negative and nobody pretends that it’s easy,” Prime Minister John Howard told talk show host Ray Hadley. “Pulling out will guarantee a descent into civil war and chaos and a victory for terrorism and we’re totally opposed to that.” And what of the much-maligned President Bush? While he’s “under pressure at home,” Mr. Howard retorted, “he’s not a person who succumbs easily to pressure, and he’s right.” Mr. Howard could just as easily have been describing himself. A man who’s been fighting political trench warfare since the 1960s, the 68-year-old prime minister is dug into what he dubs “the toughest election I have had in the last decade or more.” After 11 years in power at the helm of the ruling conservative Liberal Party, the straight-talking John Howard may finally be on the outs and Australia leaning left. Polls show Mr. Howard trailing his challenger, the Labor Party’s Kevin Rudd, by around 10 percentage points, with an election expected to be called in late October or early November. The so-called “Howard battlers,” the blue-collar workers who swung the 1996 election decisively for the conservatives, are now seen as swing votes, particularly in Queensland and Tasmania.

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