Re your post which included; "... Nothing sadder than a dedicated Howard hater. ..."
I'm not a hater at all, that is your terminolgy!
I'm just someone who took issue with much of what Howward did & did not do as PM. I have high expectations of our leaders & do not easily accept carefully air-brushed accounts of the impact of Howard's prime ministership.
As for those dates - how many federal elections have been held in January or for that matter in February? Do you really think January was an option?
It was common knowledge throughout 2007 that Kevin Rudd's popularity drove the Coalition nuts. They were convinced that Rudd's leadership would unravel & even threw in the nasty curved ball of the intervention to open a few more community divisions.
Howard could easily have gone earlier but elected to hang on for as long as he could prevent Peter Costello from taking his job.
