Happy Birthday, Smid!

[Smid]

Thanks guys!

Indeed, happy birthday.

It's too bad he has to celebrate it with a defeat in Atlasia.

It's okay, I got to celebrate it with a by-election win in Penrith on Saturday night (different state, but still, the sentiment counts!). The real-life election results make up for the Atlasian ones!

[Smid]

Again, thanks everyone for your birthday wishes! I had a great weekend and very enjoyable birthday (and anniversary - on the 19th).

Conor, Newspoll wasn't too bad... I'm certainly not complaining. I don't know how much weight I'd give polls outside of the actual campaign, though. They always tighten once an election is actually called because this far out, no one is giving serious thought to who they would actually vote for - I think that the 2PP favouring Rudd under our past two Leaders was exagerated, and likewise I would not be surprised if the current 2PP favouring us was also larger than would be the case were an election actually called.

If the NSW General Election were held today instead of in March 2011, there is no doubt that the Labor Government would be in trouble. Of course, by-election swings are far greater than general election swings, and the 25% seen on Saturday would not be replicated. It does, however, demonstrate that the 23% swing in the Ryde by-election last year was not an abberation (although these results also would obviously not be replicated at the GE). Anyway, the outcome of the by-election was to be expected, so I didn't even bother creating a thread on the International Elections board.