German General Elections 2009

For this I spent 12 hours as a poll worker? What were people thinking? The FDP is the party of the greedy bankers, the party of the better-earning folks. When they were talking about tax cuts, they only meant cutting their OWN taxes, not yours. And now they will be ruling the country? With a foreign minster who needs a lot of tutoring in English?

I had to put up with Little Miss Johanna von Schlagmichtot, a local SPD politician who is loud, garrulous, vexatious, arrogant, and extremely childish. She knew everything there is to know about elections, you see, and we were all idiots. When I tried to explain to her that she had to keep the urn covered to prevent people from putting in their ballots before we checked if they were eligible to vote, she actually sat there with her fingers in her ears! I mean, that's just the kind of politician I want to see, one who not only doesn't care about listening to voters, but who is so suffused with her own self-importance that she cannot tolerate the least little bit of criticism of her person. She made a big point of sharing her food with everyone but me, and when I *dared* sit in her chair while she was out smoking I got chided on return. Well, Goldilocks, I'm glad your party got a beating.

Luckily, she took looooong cigarette breaks very often. Of course, she was useless doing the counting, as she was only willing to count the votes for her precious SPD and she kept berating us for being idiots and sorting things in the right piles. She could not remember from one moment to the next which pile was which (except for her party, of course).

She signed the election report blanko and disappeared to an election party. I had half a mind to put the words "I acted like an idiot" above the signature. I do not want to be a poll worker again if she is on the committee.

Ah, yes, and Germany will continue to be governed by the "C"DU, now partnered with the money-grubbing FDF. They call this the "Tigerente" coalition, after a well-loved German cartoon character, a wooden duck that is painted with tiger stripes. Actually, that fits quite nicely.

Did you vote yet?

I met an old friend on the street this morning and stopped for a chat. Jovially, he asked me if I had voted yet. I raised an eyebrow - Voted? How? I'm German, I can't vote for the American president anymore. That was rather the point of obtaining German citizenship, so I am not responsible for whoever gets elected to the throne.

The Tagesspiegel was just full of comments and quotes from people. One point I found really good - why on EARTH is the German press reporting on every fart from the US election campagin? Imagine a discussion about something a German politician said on the front page of the New York Times - every day!

Actually, I think they are just trying to get us to forget all the financial shenanigans.