Political experience makes a hell of a difference to, firstly, political fortunes and secondly politicians' efficacy in parliament.
I really love it how Howard supporters continually refer back to shit like this. Typical responses include:
"Howard knew how to run a country"
"Howard could make the tough decisions"
"Howard had the right idea"
All these phrases are nothing but empty rhetoric.
I could rattle off a huge long list of Howard government failures (children overboard, Iraq war et al) but now is not the time to elaborate on them. Basically, anyone I talk to who spins this shit about political decision-making has absolutely squat to substantiate it with.
And here's where you're interpretation of this term becomes readily apparent. Because what you really mean is that Howard and Abbott acted on their own beliefs a lot of the time. Let's face it. WorkChoices was part of a Howard vendetta against the Left. Remember RU486? And Abbott's despicable and ignorant belief that 'the poor make themselves poor'? 'Hard decisions', hey. Unfortunately they relied upon their own principles a little too much. Personally, I actually value (TO AN EXTENT) Rudd's willingness to be guided by polls above the ideological fervour of Howard and Abbott.
Furthermore, because Abbott is so disinterested in how he comes across, he makes his true personality readily apparent: he is a partisan thug.
'If I knew anything about economics'? What are you, a Nobel laureate? How about you stop with the patronising crap and accept that correlation does not imply causality all the time. There was this peachy little thing called the 'mineral boom' which just happened to be in full swing throughout the Howard government's reign. But, oh, that has nothing to do with Australia's economic fortunes, it was just that Costello was such a good treasurer...
As an aside, its easy to cancel government debt and build up a huge surplus whilst at the same time bringing other sectors to a crashing standstill (public education, anyone?).
Aboriginal apology
Repeal of Howard IR legislation
ETS (TBC)
Stimulus (efficacy notwithstanding)
Internet filter (hopefully not)
These are the main things that Rudd has done.