Peter Hartcher's view of John Howard's lack of political instinct in The Sydney Morning Herald yesterday.
"Howard's $9.5 billion in new commitments on Monday took the Coalition's election promises to a stunning total of $65 billion. This is an extraordinary 6 per cent of the nation's total annual output as measured by GDP. It's the size of Vietnam's economy. It was a fundamental misjudgment.------He trusted in three things. First, he trusted in our greed, that we would grasp every dollar of handouts that we could get and be grateful to get them.------
Second, he trusted in our stupidity. Australia would understand cash handouts, but surely the country could not grasp some arcane economic point?------
Third, he trusted that his spending would pressure Kevin Rudd into matching him or even outspending him. If Rudd had followed suit, any outrage at crazy spending promises would not have had any partisan power but would have applied to both parties."
The Sydney Morning Herald article:
Peter Hartcher gives a canny account of John Howard's recent missteps and mistakes, but exactly when did the Prime Minister lose his famous edge?
I don't think it can be pinpointed to one specific event. I think Howard's instinct began to fatally blunt over the period in which his government held a firm majority in the Senate. With senate numbers allowing the Prime Minister and Cabinet to ram through almost any legislation they chose to treat in this manner, both Howard and his ministers lost the ability to critically evaluate their own performance as a government.
Time and again, the Coalition ignored community concerns and cautions given by expert bodies.
The nature of Australian society began to warp under the weight of John Howard's personal prejudices and flawed theories.
After eleven years of a Coalition federal government, many MPs had also lost touch with the heartbeat of their own electorates. Additionally, hubris began to replace commonsense - Tony Abbott being a perfect although not singular example.
If the Coalition loses power on 24 November it will have no-one to blame but itself. The Coalition lost touch with democracy and reality, while Australia lost its trust of a parliament dominated by the far right of the political spectrum.
