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Well, I assumed they wouldn't be able to stay very long; as you say, the supply lines are terrible. (Although...with a base in northern Australia, they might be able to turn the tide of the Battle of the Coral Sea, and hence take Port Moresby. I really don't know.) But with the collapse of...

Sorry to pull rank, old chum, but we have this discussion a lot on the board, and general consensus is that while a successful invasion is impossible, a failed invasion is not. If the Japanese had invaded, they inevitably would have failed; but that doesn't mean they never would have invaded at...

My idea is like this, only: To knock Darwin out as a port for Allied forces, the Japanese send a small force to seize the area after the bombing. They hold the area for six months, repelling attempts to retake the area, before withdrawing after Midway, undefeated, leaving Darwin utterly...

Thank you, and thank you for all your comments during the process, but... ...it's not that much a TL. See, this was meant to be my try at writing a serious, straight TL: a historical account, in omniscient-third-person, tracing out the government's rise and fall. I was going to use Mark and...

Just thinking about this today: My initial intention was for it to be a much more sad coda, the two of them in Tasmania realising that their essential personality flaws (especially Mark) mean they can never be together. But as I wrote the scene, I realised how much I enjoyed writing the two...

Ooh, yes, I forgot the coda! In the 1998 Queensland state election, One Nation gained 22.7% of the vote. In the 79 seats they contested, they gained over 25%. This was a third-party result without parallel in Australian history. All they needed was a few butterflies. A new leader. New...

Now that's the Aussie reaction I was expecting! I don't think I've ever said 'bonza' or 'ripper', but it makes me feel good that people do. Thanks!

Final post. I demand comments! I demand praise and adulation and scathing, scathing criticism! Or, you know, you could not. In a manner that I'm sure Mark Vass would hate, I leave the choice entirely to you. The Election By the second week of the campaign, it was obvious that One Nation’s...

Proportional representation merely gave effect to the real problem: that Weimar parties represented constituencies, without representing the whole nation. A strictly sectional party system, especially once spread amongst so many groups, would always lead to disaster. If anything...

Not really. He didn't have more money than Bush in 2000, because of Bush's massive conservative donor base. And once he gets to the general, personal wealth will be flattened by Gore, especially if the conservative establishment decide not to waste their money on him. I've never heard anything...

It's a very interesting idea, and one that doesn't get focused on nearly enough. I remember in What If?, by Stuart Macintyre and Sean Scalmer, the only real attempt at AH, there was only one Federation AH -- and that merely pushed Federation back 10 years. Compare that to a detailed, politically...

Why do the Democrats get Minnesota -- where Pawlenty's from -- and not Wisconsin? EDIT: Also, Iowa hates McCain. He's anti-ethanol subsidies, and kinda prickly -- whereas the mayor of Des Moines is actually a jug of corn syrup, and Iowans will invite you into their homes and take care of you...

It's an interesting scenario, although I obviously look at it from a less ax-grinding scenario. Forbes was an ideologue, a true believer, a man with no governing experience and no understanding of the compromises required of office. Bush, with a Democratic Lieutenant Governor and state...

This could be the second-last entry. Or third-last, most likely, but I just want the damn thing over. I can never find time for writing these days, which frustrates me, because the quality of the finished product is reduced somewhat. I know how I want the story to end, I'm just having a damnable...

One of my favourite Chaser quote: 'Pauline...I know you're watching the show...you're not watching SBS, that's for sure.' That sums up pretty much everything about their attitude to Hanson. One thinks she's a racist and the other knows she is. The ABC shows barely-disguised hostility and the...

It's the only state he could win in any circumstances. PODs: Gore runs a far more right-wing campaign against Bush, who has been weakened by a six-month primary battle against McCain; as per the Washington Monthly, he picks Zell Miller as a running mate. (The Monthly suggested this, but I can't...

TV networks don't have views -- their news coverage is so insubstantial that the ability to put forward a 'perspective' is strictly limited. The exception: the tabloid news programs, Today Tonight and A Current Affair (I think Today Tonight was called something different back then.) Their focus...

I always saw it as a three-part docudrama. You'd get real people (like Michael Kirby or Jeff Kennett) to give their accounts of what their 'fictionalised' selves did, fading into the Mark-Samantha melodrama. But, then again, I like it like this, too. I've been wanting to write this entry for...

A considerably-different 2000. Bush holds 269 electoral votes; Gore, 266. With Nader's 394 vote victory in Vermont, and with Congressman Bernie Sanders pledged to support the Green ticket in the House, America plummets towards a constitutional crisis...

I think that would be quite interesting. Dodd, at least in this campaign, was one of the more liberal candidates running. His victory would be a victory over Clinton's 'pragmatic conservative' party, over the DLC, and over the post-Mondale shift to the right. The real problem is his ties to...