Between daybreak yesterday (Wed) and midnight, there were probably twelve hours of US election chatter on German Channel One (ARD) and Channel Two (ZDF)....the two giants of public TV in the nation.
The explanation of the 270 number required to win? It was probably repeated at least fifteen times throughout the day. At one point (evening), my German wife finally admitted this public TV layout on 270 was the most confusing explanation possible, and at the level of nuclear science.
Most Germans, when having to grasp the Electoral College discussion....eventually ask why the hell would you go and invent a system like this. In their mind, it's easier to explain the four-hundred options on the new Audi A5 car, than the EC mechanism itself. (note: a year after the purchase of wife's new A5, there's still probably forty option functions that are not fully explained or easily understood)
Throughout the day.....virtually every single political player in existence in Germany....came to explain their gleeful feeling that Biden had apparently won, and all their hopes/dreams were finally going to come true.
But one might suspect that if you went around working-class people....this whole massive news effort was mostly of marginal interest. Maybe around journalists, intellectuals, and politicians.....five-star stuff. But among working-class people....the German economy, the threat of losing their job, Covid-19 shut-down-lite rules, and dismal Christmas season approaching...this US election chatter is just not that interesting.
What happens if some reversal of events occur, and Trump ends up 'winning' (in any fashion)? Well....all this gleeful stuff will quickly evaporate, and the same journalist/intellectual/political crowd will go back to gloom thinking, and settle back to Covid-doom as the topic of the day.
The positive, as my wife (the German) noted....it was great for one single day in Germany to have almost no mention of Covid-chatter on TV. I assured her....no matter what happens....the Covid-chatter will be back within the next couple of days. It wasn't the assurance that she wanted.
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