AN ELECTORAL OMEN FROM JAPAN: OPPOSITION WINS STUNNINGLY MASSIVE VICTORY

BBC:

The opposition Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) is set for a massive election victory, exit polls suggest.

The DPJ has won 300 seats in the 480-seat lower house, ending 50 years of almost unbroken rule by the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), NHK TV says.

The DPJ says it will shift the focus of government from supporting corporations to helping consumers and workers.

Japan is suffering record unemployment and its economy is struggling to emerge from a bruising recession.

The conservative LDP, led by Prime Minister Taro Aso, has governed Japan for all but 11 months since 1955.

The DPJ leader, Yukio Hatoyama, has promised to boost welfare, reform the bureaucracy, and seek a more balanced relationship with the United States.

Mr Hatoyama is the wealthy grandson of the founder of Bridgestone tyres, whose other grandfather was a former LDP prime minister.

The results suggest a stunning reversal of fortune for Japan's political parties, reducing the LDP to a rump in parliament, says the BBC's Roland Buerk in Tokyo. 

• I THINK IT'S MORE RELEVANT THAT THE VOTERS VOTED FOR MASSIVE CHANGE, THEN THE FACT THEY VOTED FOR A MORE LEFTIST PARTY.

• I THINK THE SAME SENTIMENT EXISTS HERE IN THE USA: OBAMA WAS ELECTED AS A CHANGE AGENT, BUT PEOPLE NOW REJECT HIS VERSION OF CHANGE.

• OBAMA RAN AND WON AS A CENTRIST AND MODERATE BUT HE'S GOVERNING LIKE A LEFTIST RADICAL AND PEOPLE DON'T LIKE THAT AND THEY FEEL AS IF THEY WERE LIED TO.

THE BREADTH AND DEPTH OF THE TOWNHALL REVOLTS SAY TO ME THAT THE BACKLASH WILL BE JUST AS HUGE HERE IN 2010 AND IT WAS YESTERDAY IN JAPAN.

*******UPDATE: A RASMUSSEN POLL PROVES I'M RIGHT: 57% POLLED SAY THEY WANT TO THROW ALL THE BUMS OUT AND START OVER WITH AN ENTIRELY NEW CONGRESS! 

*******UPDATE #2: HALF A DAY LATER AND INSTAPUNDIT NOTICES.

ASIDE: I THINK BRITAIN IS GOING TO HAVE JUST AS STUNNING AN ELECTION: BETWEEN THE LOCKERBIE AFFAIR AND THE MP EXPENSE SCANDAL BRITS ARE GOING TO SEND A POWERFUL MESSAGE!