Anyone who followed the campaign here knows this. Howard's credibility over Iraq is quite low, but this hardly figured at all in the decisions of people who voted for him. The issues were all domestic, political, economic, and personalities of candidates (Scroll down to the list of points outlining the plusses for the Libs and the minusses for Labor. They are quite comprehensive.)

One other factor is that historically, when the Labor Party in power for the long term in the state of New South Wales (as it has, since 1995), people tend to vote against it on a Federal level. Since Labor is in power in EVERY STATE IN AUSTRALIA, this state versus federal dynamic is quite powerful, indeed!

So you see the danger of using the Australian election to interpret any aspect of the US political process! Remember also that the 'fight against terrorism' doesn't have quite the same resonance or urgency over here, as it does in the US, even after Bali. So people in the US should be very careful about interpreting the Australian election results. They are probably ignorant of many very significant factors which have nothing (or very little) to do with you.

I'm not very good with alternate 'what if' scenarios so I can't say really, whether it WOULD have been significant for the US if Labor HAD won. But you should be very carefuly NOT to construe this victory as a massive vote in support of the war. It is a massive vote in support of Howard and the Libs, and I have explained above that the war hardly factored in at all during this campaign. Check it out for yourself if you like. Remember that unlike the US, Australian forces were small in number, very effective given their numbers, and withdrawn quickly. Howard is a VERY skilful politician. He secured the goodwill of the US without having to sacrifice any lives.

So Tom, you and others can take heart from Howard's victory and its significance for the coalition - that's fine. Latham was a goose, anyway (or a bull in a china shop, rather). But don't think Iraq is what the actual election was all about, over here. The overall dynamic had nothing to do with you or the US generally.

(I hope this will clarify things, because I don't really like post-mortems. The people have spoken, and that's it for me.)