THIS STORY REPORTS A “CRUSHING DEFEAT” FOR GERHARD SCHROEDER:

The conservative Christian Democrats won 48 percent of the vote in Schroeder’s home state of Lower Saxony, gaining 12 points over the last election five years ago to wrest the statehouse from the Social Democrats, exit polls and early returns compiled for ARD national television showed. The Social Democrats were at 33 percent, down from nearly 48 percent last time.

In Hesse state, the data showed the Christian Democrats surging to 50 percent from 39 percent in 1999, with the Social Democrats slumping to 27 percent from 39 percent. The boost in support left the Christian Democrats poised to drop a centrist coalition ally and govern the state alone.

The story says that it was economics, not his anti-American stance, that hurt him. I wonder, though. At the very least, it demonstrates that his anti-American positions were not a sufficient distraction.