Optimistic, but not confident

You need to be careful mentioning astrology. It's just not quite the thing in some in-tell-ect-ewell circles. I'm interested in why people do stuff; astrology is one frame you can examine that with, if you're so minded.

A friend of mine, Karen, studied astrology professionally. Last weekend at her house I found a 1996 book by one of her teachers. It's "50 Australian Charts" by Dennis Sutton. Here is part of what he said about John Howard:

"Howard displays subtle (Pluto) arrogance (Sun). Pluto is the planet of unity or disunity, but when it's square Saturn and afflicted it tends to tear things apart.

The most interesting aspect in his chart is Uranus in the 12th house conjunct the Ascendant. Uranus is the extremist planet and John Howard is in many ways a political extremist, but these extremist aspects of his character are kept hidden (12th house).

His extremist political views are kept secret, because when they're revealed they attract secret enmity. John Howard's secret enemies (12th house) are other political extremists."

So not Beazley or Crean, then.

However, if the Currency Lad is right and Latham is "a deranged piece of trailer trash" (meoww! down kitty!) we might just be in with a better chance than I'd thought.