• The US loses an ally. Australian PM John Howard, staunch US ally and outspoken critic of jihad and the global spread, lost his re-election bid. He was Australia’s second-longest serving prime minister behind Liberal Party founder Sir Robert Menzies. All Americans should mark the end of his tenure with gratitude… A last-minute, idiotic stunt by Liberal Party operatives killed any chances Howard and the incumbents had of retaining power. — Michelle Malkin

  • Another Bush supporter bites the dust. This was not a referendum over Iraq (local issues predominate, including a scandal about election dirty tricks) … but one by one world leaders who supported the invasion are being pushed out of office (Aznar, Blair and now Howard, to name three). Their replacements aren’t likely to be so trusting of Bush, though policy will not radically change, either. Bottom line? It doesn’t matter what part of the world you live in. George W Bush is an albatross around the neck of every politician who supports him. Oh, and that’s true in the US as well [though as our Australian friends note, that’s not why Howard lost]. — Daily Kos

  • Good riddance to John Howard. Like most foreign elections, the humiliating defeat of Australia’s Prime Minister, John Howard, was driven largely by their own domestic concerns, and it had little (though not nothing) to do with the U.S. Still, it is worth celebrating Howard’s defeat in light of how pernicious a presence he was, as one of the very few remaining world leaders who loyally supported the worst and most war-loving aspects of the Bush/Cheney foreign policy. Back in Febraury of this year, Howard inserted himself into U.S. domestic politics by spouting this Bill Kristol-like smear: :If I was running al-Qaeda in Iraq, I would put a circle around March 2008, and pray, as many times as possible, for a victory not only for [Barack] Obama, but also for the Democrats.” That comment was not only wildly inaccurate and repugnant in its own right, but it was also unbelievably hypocritical… — Glenn Greenwald, Salon.com

  • If only Bush had been more like Howard. John Howard was characteristically graceful in defeat … Of all the doughty warriors of the Anglosphere, Howard, his Foreign Minister Alexander Downer and their colleagues had the best rhetoric on the present war, and I often wished the Bush Administration had emulated their plain speaking. — Mark Steyn, The Corner, NRO

  • What it means for America. Gordon Brown in the UK and now Kevin Rudd in Australia may be good predictors that the next U.S. president will be a Democrat (or Independent if Bloomberg enters the race). However, Sarkozy’s win in France though does pose a counter point, or at least a speedbump, to that prediction. — Steven C Clemons, The Washington Note (also published in The Huffington Post)

  • Paper round-up. The New York Times has gone with an epitaph for George Bush’s best white English-as-a-first-language li’l buddy. They more or less say Bye John, Hi Kev. Apparently the main difference between the two is that Rudd wants to pull Aussie combat troops out of Iraq. And of course… — Typing is not activism

  • Ten top election moments. Surely there is no better place to begin looking at the Australian election than this wrap. The line, “I’m the fliest Mudda Rudda that you ever did see, now sit back, relax, while I speak Chinese” is particularly incisive political analysis. Once you’ve watched that and grasped that Mandarin-speaking Kevin Rudd is challenging plain-speaking John Howard you’re ready to dive into this top 10 list of what’s gone down in the election down under. — Guardian News blog