APEC Summit A Political Bust For John Howard, Polls Show - "Stunning Flop" - Age

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IF THE plan was to use the APEC summit to get the Howard Government back into contention for the federal election then the strategy has been a stunning flop. The Age/Nielsen poll today shows Opposition Leader Kevin Rudd, who along with the ABC's Chaser team stole the show from the APEC proceedings in his meetings with US President George Bush and Chinese President Hu Jintao, has also stolen a march on John Howard as preferred prime minister.

Two out of three voters approve of Mr Rudd's performance and Labor's primary vote stands at 49 per cent. One in two voters approves of Mr Howard's performance, but the Coalition trails Labor by 14 per cent on preferences with an election imminent.

These findings match other recent lopsided polls, which means the success of the summit of the most important group of leaders assembled in Australia could quickly be forgotten in all the speculation about the election and Mr Howard's leadership. For the Government, all this unfortunately detracted from significant achievements at the APEC summit, both in its formal proceedings and in the many discussions on the sidelines.

EDIT

Until recently, it appeared the US might still pursue an alternative regime. A significant aspect of the APEC declaration is that it represents a commitment to working within the UN framework. This culminates in a crucial meeting in Bali in December. Today's poll suggests that by then the Howard Government could have paid a heavy price for, among other things, its lack of urgency on climate change, a threat "now lodged deep in the national psyche", as the latest annual Lowy Institute survey put it. For all the Government's economic and trade deals, the issues that are resonating with the public, as with APEC itself, appear to have brought it even closer to the brink of electoral defeat.

EDIT/END

http://www.theage.com.au/news/editorial/electoral-climate-of-change-overshadows-apec-success/2007/09/09/1189276539924.html