This is good news for the world. Prime Minister Howard is a good conservative who does not shirk from his duty.

I was very sad to learn Howard's party will keep power in Australia, perhaps even gaining some.

I guess, when the entire media is run by the likes of Rupert Murdoch and Hollinger (over 90%) and all of their radio is run by another conservative, there is a conservative bias that is difficult to overcome.

Few other elected leaders in Coalition of the Willing have won re-election. 5 elected Heads of State (4, if you don't count Arroyo because she took office when the President resigned(is their VP elected?)) out of 14 have won so far. And then you have to include Azerbaijan, where the son of the former Commissar won (unfree place) and Rwanda, where a military strongman, Kagame, won. Oh, and the head of the Marshall Islands, he won.

Spain, Panama, Iceland, Dominican-Republic, Mongolia, Slovakia, and even Japan, have all seen a change since the war. In Macedonia, the guy died, so he can't still be in power. In El Salvador, I don't know the details, but the old guy didn't run. In Latvia, the ruling coalition fell apart the day after the election, and the PM is trying to run the country with a minority.

looks like kerry's sister could not undermine our policy no matter how hard she tried. I guess she just does not have her brothers evil talent.

Josh, I feel your pain.

It tickles.

Josh : Isn't a testimony to democracy and liberty across the globe that free people are still able to practice self determination, even during difficult times? Why do you hate Democracy ? Plus, though I suspect that you were trying to equate their participation in the coalition with their electoral defeat, I also suspect that is an incredibly naive view, completely ignoring their own electoral politics, domestic issues, etc ...

Howard, and more importantly, Australia, along with the ever-so-honorable Tony Blair, are allies of impeccable character. Even when faced with a politically unpopular decision amongst their own electorates, they were able to see that doing the right thing is more important than doing the popular thing. Personally, though quotes like that get lost in the shuffle in a debate, I thought that was one of President Bush's more powerful points in the debate last night.

Very good news. My first impression was that free nations will make the right choices. I wish FOX could be seen in England as well.

Thank God for Rupport Murdock. He's a great man who sees the fine balances of life. Anyone who knows his life story can see where he's coming from.

Of Course Fox is seen in Britain. It's called Sky TV.

Howard lied and lied about Saddam's WMD, just like Bush.

It wasn't simply that they didn't know, they manipulated the truth. Cherry-picked convenient facts, ignored hard realities.

When you folks wake up and realize this, it is going to _hurt_.

JD asks my opinion of Democracy. Well, when all the media in your country is run by right-wing liars of the Rupert Murdoch ilk (Hollinger, and the guy who runs Australian radio), then there is no such thing as Democracy. For Democracy to work, the people have to know!

Josh, in the States, all the media have been run by left-wing liars like Dan Rather. We're breaking that with the help of Rupert Murdoch and the Internet.

And the left-wing liars of the American news media are saying the same kind of crap about Murdoch that you are.

Hmmm...

McGehee, and don't forget those folks over at ABC News either.

Glad to see Kool-aid is available worldwide. Gotta love that global economy.