Exit Polls: Schroeder losing in Germany, Conservatives (possibly) winning election

[alnorth]

BERLIN — German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder's government was voted out of office Sunday as conservative challenger Angela Merkel's party led in parliamentary elections, according to an exit poll.

The exit poll from ZDF public television showed Merkel's Christian Democrats with 37 percent of the vote and Schroeder's Social Democrats with 33 percent.

However, the Christian Democrats' showing was worse than expected and made it uncertain they would win a majority with their preferred coalition partners, the pro-business Free Democrats, and make Merkel the nation's first female chancellor.

The vote centered on different visions of Germany's role in the world and how to fix its sputtering economy. Schroeder touted the country's role as a European leader and counterbalance to America, while Merkel pledged to reform the moribund economy and repair ties with Washington.

First of all before some of you point it out, "conservative" is relative in Europe, obviously. "Conservative" in Europe = "Democrats" in the US. Our right wing is extreme over there, and their left wing is extreme over here.

Regardless, assuming they know how to do exit polling better than we did in 2004, it looks like Angela Merkel and her Christian Democrats could be the new face of Germany, though thats still uncertain at the moment if they can get enough seats for a majority government. Thoughts?

[WoodDraw]

It sounds like she didn't win enough to form her desired coalition and she won't have much power to reform under a grand coalition. Hopefully she'll be able to make some progress though. Always good to see a female leader as well.

[Bootlegged]

VAS ES DAS????

[Logical]

Warum interessieren wir uns?

[BIG_DADDY]

. Always good to see a female leader as well. ROFL

[alnorth]

As much as some people love to whine and bitch about not having a noticable 3rd party in the US, Germany is showing a devastating weakness of having a ton of parties. You have a pretty good chance of having no one winning the election or being able to lead at all. When you have two parties, you have a winner and a loser, period, end of discussion, and you can move on to the business of the majority trying to govern and the minority trying to hold the line and force compromise.

[WoodDraw]

As much as some people love to whine and bitch about not having a noticable 3rd party in the US, Germany is showing a devastating weakness of having a ton of parties. You have a pretty good chance of having no one winning the election or being able to lead at all. When you have two parties, you have a winner and a loser, period, end of discussion, and you can move on to the business of the majority trying to govern and the minority trying to hold the line and force compromise.

Instant Runoff Voting takes care of that problem pretty easily.

[alnorth]

Instant Runoff Voting takes care of that problem pretty easily.

I'm not sure I understand what your talking about. I am not talking about individual elections, I assume after recounts, challenges, election law rulings, etc you can sort it out and have all the seats filled.

What happens when party A has 100 seats, B has 80 seats, C and D have 70 seats, and none of the parties trust each other? Pretty damned hard to do anything visionary or significant.

[Logical]

As much as some people love to whine and bitch about not having a noticable 3rd party in the US, Germany is showing a devastating weakness of having a ton of parties. You have a pretty good chance of having no one winning the election or being able to lead at all. When you have two parties, you have a winner and a loser, period, end of discussion, and you can move on to the business of the majority trying to govern and the minority trying to hold the line and force compromise.

Yup and we have had losers in power now for 16 straight years because of our Winners/Losers only system. Great deal!

[SBK]

Yup and we have had losers in power now for 16 straight years because of our Winners/Losers only system. Great deal!

Bush did win his re-election, but other than that you are correct. Jeesh, pretty pathetic when you think about it.....:(

[alnorth]

Yup and we have had losers in power now for 16 straight years because of our Winners/Losers only system. Great deal!

Well, it has served us pretty damned well since we have elevated into the world's lone superpower with a dominant economy. Whether the left or right governs, someone is in charge and that encourages stability when we dont have infinite revolution and/or vague coalitions where no one is in charge and no one is accountable.

[Logical]

Well, it has served us pretty damned well since we have elevated into the world's lone superpower with a dominant economy. Whether the left or right governs, someone is in charge and that encourages stability when we dont have infinite revolution and/or vague coalitions where no one is in charge and no one is accountable.You would have a hard time convincing me anyone is in charge right now, is responsible, or is even interested in running the federal government. In my 40+ years of observing government only during the Carter years do I ever remember it being so bad, and at least Carter was trying, he just did not realize that he could not do it all himself. These clowns are not trying and only want to spin media results to the public. Shamelessly horrible administration, they were better (though they made mistakes) in the first 3 years and have fallen apart in the last 2 years. Terrible, terrible, terrible.

[listopencil]

So I'm guessing that no one is voting the straight Nazi ticket?