Re: Aus Election - The what went wrong thread

[horace]

I miss him like a pin in the eye

[tac]

that's your oedipus complex showing . . .

[horace]

hahaha...good to see you are in fine form and already flexing your muscles for a summer of fun with the english ...or the next herd of goats that wander intoa certain basement

[Zat]

Good to see the great man back in the limelight . . fark I miss him . . .

Today the role of skully will be played by tac.

[Zat]

This thread is proving great entertainment due to skully's unwillingness to defend John Howard, the man he would like canonised.

Today, Peter Costello, who likely would have made a good PM, chimed in in the Fairfax press, and has said what almost everyone has accepted (except for those who would still ine up to fellate LJH) i.e. that Howard lied. A lot...

linky...

When John Howard sat down to write his memoirs he could have focused on his achievements, given generous acknowledgement to his colleagues, conceded a few failures - including the loss of the 2007 election - and made some observations on the long-term policy challenges for the nation.

It would have been the book of an elder statesman. He could have shown a spirit of generosity. And it would have enhanced his reputation. But it is not the nature of the man.

Howard wants to claim all the achievements of the Coalition government and does not intend to share the glory. He will not take responsibility for the defeat of the government in November 2007 or losing the seat of Bennelong where he had been the incumbent for 34 years. He will not take responsibility for what the whole of Australia knows - that he stayed too long.

[snip]

Now for the first time he "reveals" he intended to stand down as Liberal leader in December 2006 but was prevented from doing so - mainly by me, but also by his colleagues and then by Kevin Rudd and lastly by his own family.

So if you want to know who caused all this catastrophe it is Peter Costello. John Howard was responsible for everything except his own retirement which was all the fault of … well, you know the story by now.

He couldn't go, he says, in July 2006 because I pushed him too hard; he would look as if he was running from me. He couldn't go in December 2006 because Kevin Rudd was elected Labor leader and he would look as if he was running from Rudd.

He couldn't go when his cabinet advised him to leave in September 2007 because, according to his family, it would look as if he was running from the voters.

George Bush described him as a man of steel. He sent troops into combat. But he couldn't carry out his planned retirement because he might have received a few taunts from his enemies?

He would have received a lot more plaudits from his real friends. Or perhaps he never did intend to stand down.

There is not a skerrick of objective evidence to support his supposed retirement plan. He told no one. He tells us that if he had told anyone he might have become a lame duck because people might have thought he was going when he really wanted them to think he was staying.

So silly us for believing what he wanted us to think.

I'd love to see Hawke, Howard, Keating and Costello in the same room some time, swapping notes.

[horace]

and left rips

[G.Wood]

Kelvin Thomson = biggest nob ever

Exhibit A

"I don't think that Afghanistan can be some kind of Hotel California where you can check out any time you like but that you can never leave"

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