The Boston Globe spins this morning with the help of the Associated Press, describing John Howard's landslide Australian election as a referendum on economics while noting Howard's insistence on seeing the joint Iraq mission to its conclusion:

Australian troops will stay in Iraq, Prime Minister John Howard declared yesterday, as the stock market in Sydney hit a record high following the conservative leader's election to a historic fourth term.

At his first news conference since Saturday's election increased the parliament majority of his center-right coalition, Howard said his priorities were guarding the nation's security, working with allies to fight terrorism, and maintaining the booming economy.

The victory was a resounding vote of confidence in the government's handling of Australia's economy, which has low inflation, unemployment, and interest rates, a budget surplus, and low government debt.

While I'm certain the economy played a role in Australia's election, the notion that Iraq and the war on terror had nothing to do with Howard's historic and broad re-election to a fourth term in office stretches credibility into absurdity. Both parties ran on counterterrorism policy, with Labour insisting that it would withdraw from Iraq by Christmas. Had this been popular, or Howard's policy of foward engagement against Islamofascism been as unpopular as the Globe reports it to be, Howard would have either lost or barely squeaked by.

Does the Globe really think that Aussies have no principles when it comes to putting their troops in harm's way, and that their pocketbooks make up for their sons being killed for a mistake, as Labour would have it regarded?

Had the Labourites won the Australian elections, you can bet your last dollar (US or Australian) that the Globe would have been spinning the opposite direction, claiming that the polls rebuked the Bush Doctrine and demonstrated that the world had turned against the war in Iraq. Instead of honest reporting, the AP and the Globe choose to mislead instead. We are fortunate to have allies like John Howard who demonstrate more consistency and fortitude than the Boston Globe.

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