Australia Swings Left

In national elections today, Australia decided that 12 years of conservative rule was enough and swept the Australian Labour Party (ALP) to power, brushing aside one of President Bush's strongest allies in the War Against Islamofacsist Terror, Prime Minister John Howard.
And, if losing the majority was not enough for the Liberal party, not liberal in the left-wing sense, Mr. Howard will lose his parliamentary seat to the ALP candidate http://abc.net.au.
The ALP will have 86 seats to the Liberal-National party coalition of 64 seats according to the Australian Broadcasting Corporation projections.
However, there should not be anything to be read in this for the upcoming presidential elections.
Mr. Howard was prime minister for 12 years and the Australian economy is humming along. It is that Australians felt comfortable voting for the ALP rather than against the Liberal-Nationalist coalition. And, unlike the Democrats here in the states, the ALP, which is left-wing, has vowed not to change much and that made the electorate comfortable. It was not so much a change because the ruling party were bums, but that people wanted to see if the ALP had given up its hardcore, left-wing ideology and will govern responsibly.
So, it is a blow to President Bush, but it is not something for the Democrat candidates to get excited about. After all, there is an election in November, 2008 and things will not stay the same and it all depends on the candidates and who can pull off the votes in the key areas of the United States.