  Lots of stuff going around about the Oz elections, especially how Peter Costello won't get to smirk his way through this one as Little Johnny is going for the record. Pete's really stuck between a rock and a hard place. It's highly likely that his financial oversight and loyalty have been amongst the underpinning strengths of Johnny's PMship. Yet he may not get a chance at the golden ring himself. urlLink Lord Sedgwick has a wonderful piece of photoshop work showing how Johnny looks when he doffs the pinstipe suit. True enough, like Kylie Mole, if Johnny gets his way he'll go, he'll go....well, he'll just go. And unfortunately for the treasurer, he may not stop. Truth is, Johnny could go on as PM so long that we'd become waaaaaaaaay too exposed to Costello's smirks and quips to trust him as PM (we're only waaay too exposed at the moment).
Personally I'm not sure I'd trust him to walk my dog. urlLink Crikey is punting on an August 7 election. Not necessarily an august prediction given the reasons noted - we are a sporting public. John Howard is going to set the election date according to the best timing for his party. He's waiting for the budget bounce, which should coincide with all those eligible swinging voters, er, families getting their $600 cheques. He won't leave it too late though. The Olympics and footy finals will distract too much, and as he's behind a little in the polls, he does need to get the electorate's attention a bit.
He also doesn't want any blowback from the American elections later this year. The Australian public, whether it be through the spread of the internet or the war in Iraq, seems to have in general, a greater awareness of US politics, and wariness of the implications US policies will have for us domestically. War commitments, FTAs - soon Dubya'll be enlisting our help for his public speaking problems (a task for which even we are too under-resourced).
John W has unquestionaly tied himself to George W, which is good for him in a way as it makes him look sort of, well, statesmanlike. He may be an idiot, but Dubya's the idiot IN CHARGE. The problem for Johnny is that as George goes, so will Johnny to an extent, but without the mega-millions in advertising to sell himself or urlLink computerised voting to bring home the bacon (watch that issue grow around November/December this year!). Polls and commonsense are indicating that George is going south, and I don't mean to Crawford, Texas.
If you sleep with dogs, chances are you wake up with fleas. All this pontificating does raise the question again as to why we don't have fixed election terms. Tim Dunlop addresses the issue pretty well urlLink here . Come on Johnny, take the game out of it. Doesn't part of your manhood want to take the taxi-basher on mano-a-mano ? No element of surprise, just you and Marky Mark in a steel cage with nothing seperating you but a ballot box.
Gough Whitlam handling the spit bucket in one corner and a picture of Menzies for you to spit on in the other. Okay, maybe that wouldn't work. If there's one thing we deputies can learn from the big Sheriff, it's fixed election periods. Everyone then gets to dance to the same tune. Peter Costello can order a painter in for his portrait (then put it in the shed again, with all the others). Iron Mark can give the rabbits in the cellar a specific time period to get his tax policy ready. As a public, our cynicism can be dialled up in the 6 months prior, as all the pre-election lollipops are offered from Canberra. See, it works for everyone. 
