Each year it gets harder for conservatives around the world. The politics of global poverty tilt all elections in favor of those who promote socialism and the handout.

Howard was the victim of the shifting population and a long anti-conservative drumbeat in the media. I remember how much anti-Reagan & Bush tripe existed around 1991, after 12 years of conservative rule in the USA. A whole generation of kids that come of age during a long one-party run think the grass must be greener on the other side of the political fence because they are not old enough to remember previous administrations.

The Aussies, enjoying low unemployment and fairly steady growth will probably have to learn that socialism is never much good for a national economy, and eventually the pocketbook of everyone over a certain level income. Sometimes a walk on the other side of the fence actually is good for the electorate to see, that indeed the grass is the same ol' grass.

What's "dumb" is believing that all Australians are so hung up on US politics that they cut down their President just because he hasn't pulled some 900 diggers from Iraq. If anti-Bush sentiment were deciding foreign elections there is no way in heck Sarkozy, who practically has polished the US eagles atop the flagpoles in DC, would have been elected in France, where anti-Bush sentiment is much higher.