I predict that the Robert Manne-Left, the political force in this country most inclined to misrepresent facts and do them violence by shoe-horning them into a predetermined ideological cast, will try to take possession of the Howard loss. The Left has long understood that controlling the past is a key to controlling the future. They will argue that the Howard defeat marks the repudiation of the Howard Government's lies on Iraq, racism on Aborigines, hostility to multiculturalism, construction of a national security state, un-Australian subservience to Washington, hostility to Muslims and so on. In fact, this is almost wholly untrue, as Rudd's embrace of the Government's position on almost all this stuff indicates...Greg's probably wishing he applied for that job at Quadrant. What's he going to do now? Ghost-write the JHo autobiography: "I Did It Bush's Way"?
Sheridan devotes much of his article to pimping Tony Abbott's chances for the post-election leadership shitfight:
In opposition, Peter Costello will inherit the Liberal leadership. Abbott is the natural choice as his deputy...recent history does show us that a new government, led by a party long in opposition, can be vulnerable after one term... So the Liberals might have an outside chance in three years' time.Yes Folks! ABBOTT AND COSTELLO IN 2010!!! What a vision for the future! And what a fitting epitaph for the Howard Conga Line Cabinet.
