Posted on 11/17/2007 1:53:22 PM PST by naturalman1975
PRIME Minister John Howard is still in the race to win a fifth term, but a new poll predicts Kevin Rudd's challenge will narrowly succeed in Saturday's federal election.
An exclusive Galaxy poll conducted for the Sunday Herald Sun in the campaign's fifth week showed a tighter race for The Lodge.
Labor would win 18 seats -- two more than it needed -- with a 5.5 per cent swing in 20 of nation's key marginal seats, the poll found.
The surprising poll results emerged as the Opposition Leader revealed he would take advice from Mr Howard were he to become prime minister.
"If I believed in office, if we were elected, that Mr Howard had some expertise in a particular area, I would consider consulting him," he said.
Labor was still short of sufficient support to pick up five key Coalition marginal seats in Victoria -- Deakin, McMillan, Corangamite, La Trobe and McEwen, the poll showed.
"The problem for Kevin Rudd in Victoria is that the Labor Party holds more than half the federal seats," Galaxy pollster David Briggs said.
If Labor won, it would be NSW that delivered victory, the poll found. Labor could gain up to 10 seats in NSW, including Mr Howard's seat of Bennelong and Malcolm Turnbull's of Wentworth.
Support for Mr Rudd was highest in NSW, where the swing to him was 7.5 per cent.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.com.au ...
And it's still definitely winnable for Howard and the Coalition at this point.
I hope so.
“The surprising poll results emerged as the Opposition Leader revealed he would take advice from Mr Howard were he to become prime minister.”
He says he would consider taking it. Sure, he’d take it and throw it in the nearest dust bin.
I hope Howard hangs on. The numbers are looking better than they were a while back when Labor was up with 56/57 in 2PP.
“Dewey WINS!”
I’m praying for Mr. Howard. He’s one of the U.S.’s best friends.
I’ll continue to hope that the very sensible Australian electorate will return Mr. Howard’s party to power. Having just regained Canada, France and Germany, it would be a damned shame to lose the Aussies.
Is Howard’s actual seat in danger?
Some danger, yes - after recent boundary changes, Bennelong is a marginal seat, Howard holds it by 4.3%, and Labor is running a well known TV journalist, Maxine McKew against him.
But there was a significant swing against him at the last election, and most consider it fairly unlikely that there will be a second significant swing against him this election.
Admittedly, though, Rudd is nowhere NEAR as much of a leftie as the others are. He’s a centre-rightist, as opposed to the right Liberal Party.
(I dislike Labor, primarily because they’re wishy-washy on everything and constantly change their positions, but what they’re advocating now is certainly nothing like the Democrats in America)
I hope Howard will win, but I won’t be devastated if Rudd does. It’s not as if the Greens or the Democrats were suddenly taking power.
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