Congratulations to Our Australian Friends

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Time for Change ...

Indeed, it's been a very interesting day/night. We're just watching the reviews of everything on the Sunday morning news shows. The PM has been routed from his seat of 33 years, the Liberal (right) party has been trounced by Labor (left). Labor already held all the State seats, so we now have the same style of political party in power across the country at State and Federal levels. The next few years will be very interesting indeed. When do our American friends get their next chance to review their thinking?
 
We get our next chance in 2008

In November 2008, we'll be electing a new President and vice-President, as well as 1/3 of the Senate (100 member) and all of the House of Representatives (438 as I recall). The President is forced to leave office after two terms (8 years), whereas the Senators and Representatives, who comprise Congress, may serve an unlimited number terms of six years and two years, respectively.

Currently the presidency is Republican, with the Democrats having just established a razor thin majority in both houses of Congress. The Dem hope is that they can not only win back the Presidency, but strengthen their majorities in Congress. From what I can tell, both will likely happen. This country also is ready for a change.
 
How I voted

Well personally I am disappointed in the result however the people have spoken and I respect that decision, I wish Mr. Rudd well and hope he does do a good job as Prime Minister.
I voted for Mr. Howard's government as I really do fear having one party in power at every level. i.e. Commonwealth and State.
I do feel some joy actually in that we have just changed a government without any tanks or bloodshed in the streets that is one thing I believe worth celebrating.
Cheers.
Steve.
 
Hi Suds,

Not all of us feel there is anything to celebrate today.

I just hope that "Me Too" Kevin07 will continue to portray the image of a conservative Labour party and continue to "Me Too" in relation to our current economic platform. I have my fingers crossed that Union strikes dont become commonplace as they were in the 80's and 90's.

What concerns me about Kevin, is the Church aspect. John Howard has always allowed debate and discussion and sometimes conscience votes even when his religious views have been in conflict with the debate. I have an awful feeling, that with Kevin at the helm, the seperation between Church and State that we've always enjoyed is about to narrow, hopefully not to the level the US has to put up with.

Where Labour can make a difference is to set about creating social reform, hopefully without the multibillion dollar budget deficits that Labour has consistently run with in the past.

What a lot of the blogs seem to be missing, is that for all of John Howards faults, he has acheived a lot in the last 11 years. Hopefully he'll enjoy his retirement happy in the fact that his contributions (Both good and bad) have helped Australia move forward.

I realise, that as a young gay male, I should be an avid Labour supporter, however there is nothing that the previous Liberal government has done, that has negatively impacting upon my life. For all of the hype about Work Choices causing the end of society, everyone I know, if they're prepared to work has a job and job security.

My mother was recently terrified when her Enterprise Bargaining agreement ended, and she had to negotiate a new individual contract with her employer. Her Union had convinced her that she would suffer in this change. She ended up with no change to her employment terms and conditions and Due to her hard work and effort, she came out with a 9% payrise, that previously wasnt possible, as under an award, all staff classified in the same band as her were paid at the same rates.

Before I receive any flames about knocking the Eutopia that Kevin07 is supposed to create, I'm waiting to see what happens over the next 18 months, and if the Labour party can enact positive changes, without huge Budget Deficits, then I would consider supporting the Labour party at the next election in 2010/2011.

Regards

Nathan
 
Nathan,

Well, our own version of the Labour Party gave rise to the biggest post-war economic expansion in the 90's under Clinton. So I wouldn't give up hope just yet that things might not get even better under Rudd as they were under Howard.

It does seem like an embarrassing defeat for Howie, though. He didn't even retain his seat in Parliament. And the highest ranking member of his party will be the Lord Mayor of Brisbane.

Now if we can just turn our Republicans into Australian Liberals... LOL...
 
Yes...Congratulations!

P.M. Howard was one of Bush's staunchest allies in the war in Iraq. P.M. elect- Rudd has vowed to remove all 500,000 Australian troops from Iraq as quickly as possible.
This is a good thing! I feel very confident the 2008 elections are going to have a similar outcome here in the states.

Go Hillary!
 
Rudd has vowed to remove all 500,000 Australian troops from

Um, Shane, that would be more like he says he will enter into immediate negotiations the Iraq and allies to remove the 500 Australian combat troops from Iraq. Nowhere near 500,000 - that would be more than the US has there, and we are the #1 outsider force in Iraq. There might be a thousand more non-combat Aussie troops that will be staying on.
 
I stand corrected....

However, I did hear on "Fox and Friends" this morning that the number was 500,000. My fault for watching Fox News Channel..lol
 
Can I go on record as saying that I am not thrilled with any of our potential candidates?

"Assuming either the Left Wing or the Right Wing gained control of the country, it would probably fly around in circles. "
---Pat Paulsen
 
Of the lot I think Obama is the brightest with the most promise. But a Clinton/Obama ticket would be nice, too. I've been a little disappointed in Edwards - he's just too nice to say what needs to be said about fixing what's broke in this country.
 
Barack Obama in 2016

Barack does indeed have promise. He is just not experienced enough yet to be President. he should go back to Illinois and perhaps run for Governor. I think he would be a shoe in. This country CANNOT afford another President who lacks experience in foreign policy.Just look what has transpired over the last 7 years with Bush, who lacked greatly in foreign policy experience...I also agree with you Sudsmaster, Edwards has really turned me off this time around.

The next president needs to:

1- establish a timeline to withdraw ALL troops from Iraq.
2- restore America's imagine throughout the world.
3- be proactively involved in Middle East peace talks.
4- Pay down our record high deficits
5- ensure Social Security and Medicare remains solvent for future generations to come.

Hillary Rodham Clinton, with the help of Bill can do this. I am 100% behind her.
 
Well, I dunno. Truman had virtually no foreign policy experience when he took office. FDR kept him in the dark about most things, including the Bomb. But I think he did ok - he rose to the occasion. And I think Obama would do even better than Truman. Truman was too much in awe of men of higher military rank, and let MacArthur walk all over him, turning a potentially great victory in Korea into an embarrassing rout. I don't sense that same weakness in Obama.

If Hillary is the nominee I will vote for her. But I fear she won't win, and also that if she wins, she will face opposition from a large portion of the electorate and Congress from day 1.
 

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