IMO, voting Liberal is a safe vote. We can do a lot worse that the last 11 years John Howard has been in office. But we have no way of knowing how much Kevin Rudd will stuff up Australia if we elect him. So I say Howard should remain in power, that way we know we are safe. I see Rudd being a huge disaster. Anyway, his policies are much the same as Howard's. So since they both think the same, have the same ideas, why not elect the one who we know has and will continue to do a decent job over someone we have no idea if they will be a good PM or make us a third would country.

I'm not Australian, but the more I learn about John Howard, the less I like about him.  He's like a more intelligent version of Bush, but that's not saying much.

I really pity the American people. The 2000 election was a disaster that not only stuffed up America, but the world. Because Bush managed to sneak into presidency (which I still don't understand, maybe someone from the US can explain it to me, I thought Gore won) the whole world is in crisis. The US has a lot of control over many countries. Australia is one of them. We vowed to support the US after they saved our butts in WWII. So we followed the US into Iraq, as per orders by the chief dick George W Bush. It sucks. Whoever becomes Australian PM next year still wont do anything about it until America does something about. What are the US presidential candidates for 08 saying about the war? Are they going to pull troops out or carry on with Bush's master plan (whatever that is)?

Gore didn't win because we have the Electoral College.  One man does not equal one vote in our presidential elections.  We have a plutocratic republic, not a democracy.

It would seem that, no matter who wins the presidency here, we'll keep a certain amount of troops in Iraq for the long run, because we've set up the infrastructure for a base there.  Our embassy even looks like a freaking fortress.

The master plan would seem to be an eventual invasion of Iran, but it's hard to tell.