Howard Wins, one down and two to go

My Way News

All indications are that Australian prime minister John Howard's center-right coalition has defeated Labor under Mark Latham who had pledged, if elected, to have all of his country's 2,000 troops home from Iraq by Christmas.

Health care and education were the other top issues, but on those the two parties agreed on basic goals and competed to see which party's plans the voters would trust to achieve those goals. Sounds a lot like the campaign here in the US, or the coming effort by Tony Blair to capture a third term as Labor PM in Britain.

The Australian, US and UK races have been billed in some quarters as referenda on the GWOT and the campaign in Iraq. So far the score is 1-0 for the good guys.