Some Votes Are More Equal than Others
Overseas
I stole that headline from Rebecca’s Pocket, who got the line from Electoral-Vote.com, which reminds us that in some states, students can register where they’re studying, rather than going the absentee ballot route via their parents’ home state. This can help turn a swing state into a solid state for Kerry. Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Iowa, Maine, New Mexico, Nevada, Ohio, and Oregon are considered “marginally pro-Bush”; while Deleware, Maryland, Michigan, New Hampshire, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Washington are “marginally Kerry,” or worse. Even California and Illinois are considered “weak Kerry” states. With a projection of Bush winning the White House with 307 electoral votes to 207 for Kerry, it’s vitally important for everyone who can to vote as strategically as possible.

Locally
It’s all very well for John Howard to play the politics of fear and personal interest over policy, but in the end it comes down to business as usual. To say his experience is what will keep Australia safe in the new age of terror appeals to the uncertainties we face (and the media plays up to it). To say that a Labor government will drive up interest rates is just a flat-out lie. In fact, the Reserve Bank has just said it’s entirely the opposite: the Coalition’s new spending programs are likely to drive interest rates up. Ask any Australian of voting age about Labor, and you’re likely to hear about interest rates of 17%, a situation that occurred the last time Labor was in power, during which period Australia was also suffering (as was most of the world) from an extended recession. Howard’s spending the present budget surplus as if it’s money in hand, rather than just an accounting trick, in one of the biggest pork-barrel sprees I’ve ever seen, and all of the targeted programs are hot-button items: child care tax credits for grandparents, for example. That’s a clever bit of tax relief, but not one that wouldn’t have come in eventually anyway under Latham, and not one that’s going to provide much real relief, so don’t be too easily fooled (again).