Election 2004 | Day 14 | Debate Fallout
I watched the whole thing again at 10 on the ABC, because I'm a sad, sad person with nothing better to do. I really hope to see Latham with a hangover tomorrow, coz he just plain rocked. He bent Howard over the bonnet, inserted an umbrella, opened it, then spun it around. And what the shit was with Howard's closing speech? The entire thing was about money. Great way to win votes there. Read Latham's thoughts on the night if you want.
I was surprised at how Latham handled the national security thing - I thought Howard would have caught him there, but he was kickarse there too. And he used my favourite Medicare high-wire quote. How awesome. And the "parent's wallet" remark over uni degrees. And the whole section with him questioning whether Howard would stay a whole term or not. And public/private school funding. So, so awesome. If I was a teenybopper I'd be jumping up and down, screaming and asking him to autograph my boobs.
Clare was right about the green haired guy - people over at Dickheads Incorporated have already started ranting at how it was rigged and all this other bullshit. For another unrelated example of whacked out fuckwits at work, try here.
So how did News Ltd manage to spin this around to make it look good for Howard? By continually asking people until one said Howard won.
The SMH has some good quotes from the debate (each quote showing Latham kicking Howard up the date), and for some more debate related stories check:
There's a shitload more, but I'm sick of writing <li> tags. Check Google News for some more.
Note that there's no Daily Telegraph ones in that list, as they either haven't updated their website or are choosing to completely ignore the outcome. The majority of those articles are from Fairfax for the simple fact that they've got a heap more online right now.
Onto other stuff...
Anderson Shoots Himself In The Foot
Deputy Prime Minister, John Anderson, conceded that Australia is more of a terrorist target due to Iraq. I suppose he doesn't cop a massive bitchslap from Howard for disagreeing with him, because technically he isn't in the Liberal party. *shrugs* But he's been saying a lot of things lately that are either a) completely mental or b) damaging to their re-election chances. Maybe he's losing it?
Liberals And Greens Hand In Hand?
Yeah, I don't believe it either. The Daily Telegraph are reporting it (along with fifty seven billion anti-Greens stories), but I strangely enough, can't find it reported in any other newspaper. Their anti-Greens editorial is also suitably insane, although I have to give it points because it says that NRL is better than AFL. I haven't been following Greens news much, but musewhipped over at LiveJournal is covering the election with bias towards them.
Digital TV
News Ltd are reporting all of the FTA networks are in a shitfight with how to proceed with the uptake of digital TV. Just imagine, this wouldn't have happened if Richard Alston was actually a decent minister before he conveniently scored a job with a company he dealt with, and didn't put restriction after restriction on things just to keep Foxtel happy.
ADSL Bribery
Hendikins has been looking to upgrade to ADSL for ages now, and his exchange has finally been enabled. The interesting thing is that not only has this happened around election time, in an unsafe seat, but the info thing now mentions that ADSL has been now brought to you thanks to your awesome lovely friends in the Federal Government (mine never did when we got ours). The Luminosity blog goes into much more detail over this.
Finally, the awesome Andrew Bartlett gives Howard a hammering over at his blog.
I was surprised at how Latham handled the national security thing - I thought Howard would have caught him there, but he was kickarse there too. And he used my favourite Medicare high-wire quote. How awesome. And the "parent's wallet" remark over uni degrees. And the whole section with him questioning whether Howard would stay a whole term or not. And public/private school funding. So, so awesome. If I was a teenybopper I'd be jumping up and down, screaming and asking him to autograph my boobs.
Clare was right about the green haired guy - people over at Dickheads Incorporated have already started ranting at how it was rigged and all this other bullshit. For another unrelated example of whacked out fuckwits at work, try here.
So how did News Ltd manage to spin this around to make it look good for Howard? By continually asking people until one said Howard won.
"Oh I'm glad the worm doesn't have a vote."
- John Howard, after getting his arse handed to him tonight
The SMH has some good quotes from the debate (each quote showing Latham kicking Howard up the date), and for some more debate related stories check:
- Latham Accuses Howard Of Running From Leadership (SMH)
- A Clear Advantage For Scrapper Who Accentuated The Positive (SMH)
- Playing On An Away Ground, The Challenger Wins (SMH)
- Latham Wins Battle Of The Worm (SMH)
- Three Hot Minutes That Shattered A Truce (SMH)
- Blow By Blow, But No Killer Punch (SMH)
- Pledge On Hospitals Lifts Latham (SMH)
- Worm Signals A Defeat For Howard (SMH)
- Latham Puts Iraq On The Election Table (WebDiary)
- One Too Many For Howard (The Australian)
- Leaders Debate The Big Issues (News Ltd editorial where they refuse to admit Howard lost, The Australian)
- In The Margins First Timers Pick Latham (which seems like an utter waste of space of an article, The Australian)
- Howard And Latham Slug It Out (Herald Sun)
- Leaders Square Off In Debate (ABC)
- Latham Wins The Great Debate (The Age)
- Latham Finishes Ahead, No Wriggling Out Of It (The Age)
- Howard Short On Confidence, Warmth (The Age)
- Labor Campaign Back On Track (The Age)
There's a shitload more, but I'm sick of writing <li> tags. Check Google News for some more.
Note that there's no Daily Telegraph ones in that list, as they either haven't updated their website or are choosing to completely ignore the outcome. The majority of those articles are from Fairfax for the simple fact that they've got a heap more online right now.
Onto other stuff...
Anderson Shoots Himself In The Foot
Deputy Prime Minister, John Anderson, conceded that Australia is more of a terrorist target due to Iraq. I suppose he doesn't cop a massive bitchslap from Howard for disagreeing with him, because technically he isn't in the Liberal party. *shrugs* But he's been saying a lot of things lately that are either a) completely mental or b) damaging to their re-election chances. Maybe he's losing it?
Liberals And Greens Hand In Hand?
Yeah, I don't believe it either. The Daily Telegraph are reporting it (along with fifty seven billion anti-Greens stories), but I strangely enough, can't find it reported in any other newspaper. Their anti-Greens editorial is also suitably insane, although I have to give it points because it says that NRL is better than AFL. I haven't been following Greens news much, but musewhipped over at LiveJournal is covering the election with bias towards them.
Digital TV
News Ltd are reporting all of the FTA networks are in a shitfight with how to proceed with the uptake of digital TV. Just imagine, this wouldn't have happened if Richard Alston was actually a decent minister before he conveniently scored a job with a company he dealt with, and didn't put restriction after restriction on things just to keep Foxtel happy.
ADSL Bribery
Hendikins has been looking to upgrade to ADSL for ages now, and his exchange has finally been enabled. The interesting thing is that not only has this happened around election time, in an unsafe seat, but the info thing now mentions that ADSL has been now brought to you thanks to your awesome lovely friends in the Federal Government (mine never did when we got ours). The Luminosity blog goes into much more detail over this.
Finally, the awesome Andrew Bartlett gives Howard a hammering over at his blog.
posted by Dave at
Monday, September 13, 2004
