Howard earns interest on rates

The reason for this is clear looking at the qual. The Liberal Party enjoys a good record in voters’ eyes of keeping interest rates low, while the Labor Party doesn’t. Those who favour Labor to keep rates lower rely on abstracts like the parties’ policies. They also point to recent rate rises under Howard.

We’ve also analysed these responses with the Leximancer software. As the attached map shows, "Howard" is a negative for the Liberals on the issue, but "Rudd" isn’t even present, strange given his presidential approach. "Labor" is negative for the opposition and is associated with the Liberals being best to lower interest rates. The debate is dominated by perceptions of risk and looking for the party least likely to make rates higher, rather than likely to make them lower. IR is also absent as a concept, suggesting both that job insecurity is not an issue with interest rates, and also that the Liberal Party has not been successful in linking IR reform with a better economy.

All in all, this is not a strong hand for Howard, but it is an even weaker hand for Rudd. In the no-holdem game of political poker, if I were Howard I might be prepared to play this game to the end, particularly given the number of dud alternatives hands there are lying around.

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