WHY SCHROEDER KEEPS TRYING TO CHANGE THE SUBJECT:

BERLIN – Every week brings Germany more grim economic news. Bankruptcies hit a record high. Growth grinds to a halt. In Berlin 313,500 unemployed people chase an estimated 20,000 job openings. . . .

The postwar German economic miracle has run its course. Soaring labor costs and taxes, subsidies to prop up the former East Germany, foreign competition, an aging population and a global economic slowdown have come together to pull the economy down.

There’s more. Schroeder’s strategy doesn’t seem to be working, though, as Schroeder’s party has suffered another electoral defeat:

More defeats for Schroeder’s SPD

Communal elections in Germany’s northernmost state of Schleswig-Holstein have delivered more hefty defeats for Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder’s Social Democrats. Compared to polls in 1998, nearly a third of voters abandoned the Social Democrats on Sunday, leaving it on 29.3 percent, while Schleswig-Holstein’s CDU conservatives soared from behind to 50.8 percent. The Social Democrats came close to losing the mayorality in the port city of Kiel for the first time since 1946. That post is to be decided in a run-off on March the 16th. Federal opposition CDU leader Angela Merkel said the result for Schroeder was “disasterous”. Schroeder’s colleague, Schleswig-Holstein’s premier, Heidi Simonis urged party headquarters in Berlin to reassert itself. Four weeks ago the SPD lost heavily in Lower Saxony and Hesse states.

This loss isn’t comparable to that earlier one, of course, but it can’t be making Schroeder, or his party, happy. It isn’t all bad news, though, as Scott Hanson emails:

But there is also good news for Schröder. His singing double (the one who did the tax song a couple of months ago) is one of the favorites to become Germany’s nominee for the Eurovsion Song Contest.

Oh, I’m sure he’s celebrating that development.