Sep 7, 2008
The candidate
This is Frank-Walter Steinmeier. He wants to be chancellor of Germany. Today, he was chosen as the presumptive nominee of his party, the SPD. How?
- He did not go door to door to canvass.
- No volunteers went door to door to canvass for him.
- He did not hand out yard signs.
- Or pamphlets. Or stickers. Or buttons. Or anything.
- He did not set up a campaign website.
- He did not put out any ads in newspapers or on TV.
- He did not solicit contributions from voters.
- He did not hold a public rally or a town hall meeting.
- He did not participate in any debates.
- He did not put his name on any stupid ballot and he certainly did not get any votes from anybody.
No, he met with another old guy, Kurt Beck, and afterwards declared himself the candidate.
Go figure.
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6 Comments, Comment or Ping
Curaitis
At least he and another old man could have saved their party today
. I don’t expect him to win over Merkel next year, but the fall of the social democrats should have been stopped now.
Sep 7th, 2008
Melli
Thank God, Kurt’s mullet is finally off the table!
Sep 8th, 2008
Jessica
well, to be fair it has to be said that choosing your parties nominee is done a bit differently in Germany. none of them actually caucus or hand out any signs- usually the party gets together on a convention and nominates the person put forward by the chairman.
now, seeing as Mr Steinmeier was nominated side-stepping that process and Mr Beck’s right of suggestion, i think it’s understandable Beck stepped down. I actually feel kinda bad for him- not that i liked him much, but he didn’t exactly make advances to become chairman – he got the job cause there was no one else volunteering themselves for it. So now being chucked out like that…
but anyways, it’ll be interesting to see how Steinmeier will position himself against Merkel of the CDU next year.
Also a fun little “german way of doing things”: select your candidate one year in advance. nice.
Sep 9th, 2008
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