Howard's Mend

Perhaps I need to travel around this country more. I don't seem to quite understand the voting patterns of other states, if I even understand my own. To wit: 'In Victoria, there was a 2.77 per cent swing to the coalition, giving the government 51 per cent of the vote and Labor 49 per cent' (Ninemsn).
My electorate returned Jenny Macklin, as expected, but frighteningly the Family First Party received more votes than the Democrats and the Greens put together (Herald Sun, 9/10/04:105). Still, there were also more informal votes than votes for the Family First Party, so maybe apathy will get the better of fundamentalists trying to break down the church and state barrier.
So, what does all this mean? Not a hill of beans, apparently. Howard/Costello march on forward wearing those shit-eating grins they have patented. Latham was devastated as was Crean (refusing to talk to the Chaser); and the 18-40 year olds that Mick Molloy was so picketing for - and asked Latham about - seem to have been forgotten.
One consolation is that if John Kerry wins the US election, Howard and Costello will have to change policies anyway, in order to maintain the collective Australian tongue firmly in the back pocket of the American trousers, working its gravelly tip through the fabric of pride and decency until we are into a full-on flesh-on-flesh relationship.
Advance Australia fair, indeed.