Decks cleared for poll

Posted by on October 13, 2007, 5:05pm, 376 views

John Howard is teasing the media quite nicely about the timing of the election. He’s ready to go but won’t fire the starter’s gun until he is ready. Fair enough, the timing is about the only thing in his control at the moment.

One could be forgiven for being cynical about Howard’s embrace of Aborigines and gays in the past week.

One theory says the new-found liberalism is designed to shore up the party’s vote in marginal city seats in the event of a total whitewash. “The government is trying to plug too many holes in the dyke. It needs to simultaneously belt the Sudanese and love Aborigines,” Andrew Landeryou writes.

I’m a cynic from way back, but in this instance I don’t see it that way. I don’t believe Howard’s reincarnation is either pragmatic or defensive. I think it’s more tragic than that.

I see a tired old man who didn’t know when to quit. I see a man desperately seeking a legacy which isn’t the Iraq War. I see a man who doesn’t want to be remembered like his predecessor Malcolm Fraser as someone who squandered an opportunity.

I see a man who left it all too late.

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