Trust the people
Posted on 10/09/2004 12:47:55 AM PDT by naturalman1975
I hesitate to suggest this, as I am fairly new around here, but I have noticed that there is quite a lot of interest in the Australian eleciton, so I thought I would make an offer here. I will be watching the election coverage and if people are interested, as the coverage proceeds, I can post updates in this thread, so people can follow what is happening in Australia.
Just an offer. Coverage starts in 15 minutes.
Oh and if any other Aussies want to post updates as well, of course, I wouldn't object. It's just I can see interest.
Last Update: Saturday, October 9, 2004. 8:40pm (AEST)
Bartlett sounds warning on Senate result
Democrats leader Andrew Bartlett says there is a danger the Coalition could gain control of the Senate.
Senator Bartlett says the results from Tasmania put the Liberal Party closer to winning 50 per cent of the Senate.
Senator Bartlett says it looks like the Liberals will win three Senate seats in Tasmania.
He says this is a result of Labor's forestry policy not going down well in that state.
He says Tasmania was always going to be the hardest state for the Liberals to win three Senate seats, although it is still too early to see if that has been repeated in the mainland states.
"That's a significant result in terms of the Senate."
That would be lovely for Australia,but I imagine that their grand gesture is all talk,just like our native liberals' was,unfortunately. It would make for a lot more national coherence all round if the liberals would all just gather in France or Germany,hehe.
Hehehe... those wackos know how to spin a defeat as a victory. No wonder they are dreaming of President Kerry in January.
Mark Latham to concede in the next half-hour (ABC radio).
Yep.It would send quite a message to terrorists no doubt.
I'm one glad Australian right now.I'm glad that this will rightly be seen as support for America and President Bush.
Can't wait to hear comments from the Kerry camp on our election.
God bless
Majority in the vicinity of 20.
Last Update: Saturday, October 9, 2004. 9:00pm (AEST)
Crean disappointed with result
Opposition Shadow Treasurer, Simon Crean, says he is disappointed with the result although he says he will leave it to Opposition Leader Mark Latham to concede defeat.
"The result reflects a campaign by the Liberals that has been run in the very worst of republican negatvie traditions," he said.
"The campaign has been run on a big lie - a lie that it Labor was elected, interest rates would be higher under us."
bump!
BTW, does anyone have a midi of "Waltzing Matilda" to link to?
Can we be so lucky?
Great win!
The Liberal/National Coalition will win the election with an increased majority. The swing to the coalition has been about 3% to 5%. The Labor Party vote is down and they have actually lost seats. The Greens did not increase their vote as they expected to. The Family First Party polled very well for a new political party, about 3% to 5% of the vote in the seats they contested. The Democrats vote was down by 80% ! They only gathered about 1.5% of the total votes in the House of Representatives.
A very good result all in all.
A New Zealander put succiciently the whole thing when I remarked that the megariches in the US like Donald Trump vote Left:
It’s worth noting that US Democrats are a LOT more right wing than the NZ Labour Party. Trump et al support them because wealth and capitalism are not dirty words like they are here.
And the "true Left", the Green Party, is obnoxiously Berkeley-esque. Its foreign and defence "spokesperson", Keith Locke, is nakedly anti-American in the Noam Chomsky mold, and he defends Holocaust revisionist David Irving's rights to freedom of speech, yet does not want them granted to any American conservatives passing through this country. Who says this country is a paradise?
Tell Howard not to accept ANY phone calls from Howard after he concedes, just in case he has an Al Gore moment and backs out. Deport his lawyers just in case.
I agree and have said for years (the mid 1980s) that I consider Mayor of NYC one of the higest directly elected offices in the land, in terms of both regional and national profile, influence, and spotlight.
After President and VP, I figure that Governors of NY, CA and TX have that stature, as well as mayors of NYC, LA, and Chicago.
Today my rankings would be Gov of CA, Gov of NY, and Mayor of NYC as tops, though in the 'glory days' I would say it was Gov of NY followed by Mayor of NYC.
Rudy should go places with this springboard. So could Arnold (the US Senate I would suspect but because of his immigrant status not the Presidency, though I actually consider Gov of Cali more prestige than being Senator from Cali).
Governor Pataki might have lost his window of opportunity for a more national presence but he looks very tired to me, having hung on for one too many terms as Gov of NY (for my money he should have challenged Schumer for the Senate this year and he would have had as good a shot as any to win, with no downside if he loses). Sadly I think he will have the 'stale' factor working against him if he runs again in 2006, making it easier for Spitzer to win, and the only thing Pataki has that is close to a legacy is Rudy - who isn't a legacy of his at all - who would beat Spitzer into the ground but I have a feeling Rudy will join the 2nd term Bush admin in some capacity and has national ambitions (and Rudy isn't getting any younger).
Bloomie is a small man and is clearly too small for mayor of NYC, let alone anything greater, and I don't even expect him to get re elected next year. But I could be wrong - I didn't think he was going to beat Green.
The current Mayors of LA and Chicago seem like local stars to me, with no national potential, as does the Governor of Texas.
Who cares?
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