Two Political Stories

 First, more polling revealed from Focus this AM....using info from the weekend and gathered from 2,340 people.  It's dismal news for Merkel's party (the CDU):

SPD clearly ahead now at 27-percent.  CDU-CSU has fallen to 19.5 (if the CSU holds 7 of those points, it means the CDU is really around 12.5, and that's pretty crappy for them.

FDP?  13-percent.  Greens?  They fell a bit, now at 15.5-percent.  AfD at 10.5-percent.  Linke at 6.5-percent. 

With these numbers, it appears that the left coalition (SPD-Linke Party-Greens) is currently possible.  If the Greens fall any further....it'd be hard to make this coalition possible.

For the CDU executive committee, responsible for Laschet being chosen....it's a four-star disaster.  

Second story?  ZDF (public TV, Channel Two) ran a two-hour election show (live) called 'How Are You, Germany' last night.

One moderator, each party had people there to explain things, and a mix of different people to explain their problems....wanting the political system to fix/resolve the problems.

Laschet, Scholz, and Baerbock were not there....in case you were wondering. 

I'll say four things about the evening:

1.  This method of tying people to problems marginally works.  Round-peg in a triangular hole situation.

2.  From 20-odd people with problems.....they were all at home and connected to the TV show via zoom.  Occasionally, the camera would throw the group up, and it was obvious they were NOT buying into the answers or words used by the politicians on probably half of the commentary.  

3.  On the 'save-the-Earth' routine, I don't think any of the seven parties gave the 'magic' theme or words to make the 'kids' happy.  The politicians continually harped on the fact that you have to run a country with jobs and commerce, and you can't resolve any of this overnight.  

4.  Oddly enough, the AfD rep did have a moment or two of clever answers....maybe getting noticed a bit more.

5.  There were just too many politicians in the mix, for this format to effectively work.  I won't criticize ZDF that much (this is probably some format they've done a dozen times in the past).  

So to sum up things.....if anyone was looking for a 'Jesus-party'.....they probably won't be able to find it.  You are simply looking for the least screwed-up party and least dislikable Chancellor candidate.