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GZ, I couldn't agree more with your sentiments about the consequence of a Lib loss. I agree that if they lose this election the consequences will be disastrous for the party. This too must be laid at Howard's feet. He has hung on to power for the sheer sake of it and through his hubris, and the result is that there is no effective succession plan. The libs will tear themselves apart in the fight over the scarps of leadership.

That, as you say, can only be bad for Australian politics as has been shown by the years of weak Labor opposition.

Believe it or not, I'm not anti Liberal Party per se. It's just that I've always detested John Howard and everything he has stood for, a comfortable Australia, afraid to innovate and go its own way, happy to live on extracting our wealth from the ground rather than develop our intellectual capacity, happy to depend on others for the illusion of security, happy to run a country based on mediocrity. As we have debated ad nauseam over the years, Howard is not a true Liberal as was, say, Menzies. Now his chickens are coming home to roost.

Cheers,