Charles Richardson
Psephologist and writer
Charles Richardson has contributed to Crikey since 2002, and was a ministerial adviser in the Kennett government and a former editorial manager at the Centre for Independent Studies in Sydney.
In the US there are dozens of serious pollsters polling hundreds of individual races, and a correspondingly large journalistic and blogging community scrutinising results. We do our best here, but we're not in the same league.
Pollsters like Roy Morgan seem to be getting confused over what's already a Liberal seat and what's a marginal seat and how many are needed. Charles Richardson explains the facts.
Kevin Rudd's biggest problem was the size of the gap between what he promised and what he delivered. His early demise isn't a grave setback to the reformist cause within Labor.
The Australian deserves congratulation, but its achievement is creating its own reality -- Julia challenging Kevin -- rather than accurate reporting of what was really happening, writes Charles Richardson.
So for once the media are right when they say that this morning's events are utterly unprecedented. The problem is that politics has become dominated by an apparatchik class with incredibly short-term thinking.
It's always risky to bet against the sympathy vote, and sure enough, it seems to have given a boost to Poland's Jaroslaw Kaczynski in the Polish election.
There's a good reason why election coverage doesn't usually focus on the Nationals. As usual all the attention is on Liberals versus ALP, with this year a bit of extra coverage for the Greens.
The Greens intend to maintain their moderate drugs policy rather than back-pedal -- as they repeatedly have in the past -- under threat of a scare campaign. It's the right play.
Looking at the map in the cold light of logic, there is no reason why Belgium should exist. And Sunday's general election gave a plurality to the Flemish separatist party.
America's long, drawn-out election season continues, with primary elections in 11 states yesterday (Australian time) to choose candidates for November elections. The results were largely equivocal.
