Bigmouth strikes again. Yesterday, on the Sunday program, Alexander Downer speculated that a “dark horse” may win the 2008 US presidency. Should he really speak that way about Barack Obama?

Government up but Labor lead. The Government’s primary vote is up 1% to 41.5% while Labor support has fallen 1% to 40.5% according to the latest Morgan Poll. With preferences distributed as they were at the 2004 election, the two party preferred vote splits 52.5 to 47.5% in Labor’s favour – although the polling predates last week’s interest rate rise.

Career change. Former Australian Democrats bad boy John Davey is leaving Canberra to open a gay sauna in Newcastle, Crikey is told.

Plus ca change. S-x and sleaze seem set to dominate the lead-up to the NSW poll, going by the front pages. Was it always so? Yes but no. There was much talk at the 1965 poll over the behaviour of Speaker Raphael Septimus Maher, who won the nickname “Ray the Lighthouse Keeper” as he supposedly flashed regularly. The newspapers didn’t report that sort of thing in those days.

S-x obsessed. Academic and author Ross Fitzgerald has produced an interesting take on Jonestown: “Highlighting his supposed s-xual orientation would be justified… if Jones were shown to be a pedophile, a s-xual predator or if he were hypocritical in his discussions of and about s-xuality”.

Western Sydney sociology. Strange that there hasn’t been more comment on the cover of this week’s Bulletin: “Young, angry and Lebanese”. In the background of the picture there’s a hoonmobile with the plates YBCUT4. With all the pop sociology on Western Sydney we’ve read over recent years, why haven’t we heard more on the central role clearly played by circumcision?