October 02, 2004

LATHAM'S MIGHTY AUTHORITY

Christopher Pearson on dopey spineless appeaser Mark Latham:

It's not necessary to rely on his cut-and-run policy to brand Latham as an appeaser. The ultimate in appeasement lines must be bewailing the prospect that confronting terrorists makes us more of a target. It implies a consequentialist mirror-argument, as dopey as it is spineless. Rather than risking the terrorists' wrath by standing up for what we believe in, the safest course of action is to do nothing to offend them and hope they can find it in their hearts to overlook our "crusader nation" role in East Timor.

Word is that Latham’s inaction over Ivan Molloy-Milat is jerking polls around in Queensland, driven by the sentiment sharply expressed by Oz Witch:

If I was Osama bin Laden, I'd sure be voting for Mr. Molloy. And for Mr. Latham who doesn't seem to have the stomach to send this guy where he deserves to go, which raises doubts over both his resolve as a leader and the integrity of candidates he seems willing to embrace into his party.

Indeedy! But brace for potentially KA-BOOM poll news from Sydney’s marginals in Sunday’s Sun-Herald. In other poll jibber-jabber, bean-counters give Howard the edge:

Results tallied at the 18 Miss Maud coffee houses and restaurants this week revealed 44.5 per cent of the more than 20,000 beans polled by customers were in favour of the Liberals.

Labor polled 29.8 per cent of the beans, followed by the Greens with 10.1 per cent, the Democrats and Nationals with 3.8 per cent each and "others" attracting 8 per cent.

Posted by Tim Blair at October 2, 2004 06:13 AM
Comments

No hints on which way the KA-BOOM blows?

Posted by: Tony.T at October 2, 2004 at 12:08 PM

On another topic, how about Alexander Downer bringing out the old 'feral left' call once again? Would he prefer the 'feral right' to come after him, with their shotguns, tootheless grins, sister-wives and burning crosses?

Posted by: benedict anderson at October 2, 2004 at 01:27 PM

Oops, I mean toothless. Which reminds me, the feral right must have invented the toothbrush, otherwise it would have been called the teethbrush.

Posted by: benedict anderson at October 2, 2004 at 01:30 PM

Using Latham's argument, if we'd all been nice to the Nazis we could have avoided WW2.

Posted by: John at October 2, 2004 at 01:32 PM

I think you're imagining things again, Ben. And, look, while I'm at it, that article about Suharto's last erection was just plain silly.

Posted by: Patsy at October 2, 2004 at 01:33 PM

Look, the feral left simply imagine themselves, vis a vis, the feral right...media outlets, particularly blogs, enable these people to imagine themselves in cyberspace as a brotherhodd/sisterhood of men/women blah blah etc echo chambers and self-perpetuating feedback loops create communities which will never surrender on any beaches, anywhere. The national party should be called the nationalist party. The sixties is to blame for any moral decay. Bring back the conservative, not conservationist, fifties, where women knew their place, black people could be fenced off, and gay people could wallow in their own self hatred.

Posted by: benedict anderson at October 2, 2004 at 01:51 PM

I don't particularly want the 60s back, as it was nearly twenty years before I was born.

The baby-boomers, however, can't get enough of it (ie every war is Vietnam, every President is a war-mongering Texan, and Australia is to be castigated for allying with the US).

Boring.

Posted by: Quentin George at October 2, 2004 at 02:48 PM

I don't recall Somalia ever being compared to Vietnam. Nor peace keeping in E. Timor. Only Iraq.

Posted by: Andy at October 2, 2004 at 05:37 PM

Scratch Lathams' very thin skin and you will find he is in total agreement with that utter tool Molloy. I can't wait to put the fucker last on Saturday. God help us if he gets to the lodge.

Posted by: Dog at October 2, 2004 at 07:01 PM

Acoording to door stop interview with Howard today 2 Oct today the Coalition is up in key Sydney marginals,
Anthony Green is right Howard will win.

I think that coffee bean poll has always been right in the end as well, Howard won that one too.

Looks like the voters don't care a hill of coffee beans for Latham, make no mistake he would be the absolute worst Prime Minister this country could ever have, outstripping Whitlam and Keating by miles. Everyone reading this should do every thing they can to defeat this cretan.

Posted by: onward at October 2, 2004 at 07:54 PM

benedict anderson said:

"Oops, I mean toothless. Which reminds me, the feral right must have invented the toothbrush, otherwise it would have been called the teethbrush."

benny benny,

you should be more original and not recycle old jokes like that. The last time I heard that one it was about Collingwood fans.

Posted by: amortiser at October 2, 2004 at 10:35 PM

You RWDB’s had better start preparing yourself for a huge Latham Victory.

Posted by: Paul.H at October 3, 2004 at 12:22 AM

Based on, of all things, a Taverner poll? You, my friend, are delusional.

Posted by: Grand Old Elephant at October 3, 2004 at 01:48 AM

I admit I was a little worried when I first read about the Sun-Herald poll, but now that I know it's a Taverner poll, with a sample of about 800 spread over 4 electorates, I can relax again. Furthermore, the Sunday Telegraph has a poll showing the Coalition leading Labor 51.5 to 48.5 in its marginals.

Posted by: Fielding at October 3, 2004 at 02:39 AM

Paul H. A "Huge" Latham victory? Dude, not everyone is as silly as you.

Posted by: Dog at October 3, 2004 at 03:40 AM

Fielding,that would be like Newspoll 1000+ spread over 12 electorates.Start worrying.

Posted by: Blind Pugh at October 3, 2004 at 03:52 AM

Newspoll or Taverner? F*cking no-brainer, that one.

Posted by: Grand Old Elephant at October 3, 2004 at 11:27 AM

Blind Plugh, the result for Parramatta was derived from a sample of 300 people, whereas the earlier Nielsen one favouring the Coalition in that seat used a sample of 1000. And the polls in Dobell and Greenway used samples of just 100! Hah!

Posted by: Fielding at October 3, 2004 at 12:12 PM

Grand old Elephant, Fielding & Dog.
If you guys are going on the last Nielsen Poll, Lib Primary of 50%, than you guys are the ones who are delusional. Ratty only got 47.3% in 96
The latest Nielsen has 52-48 this time. 4% swing to labor 2pp.
Like I said. Prepare to see Ratty moving out of Kirribilli and Latho moving into the lodge.

Posted by: Paul.H at October 3, 2004 at 11:54 PM