ANTIAMERICANISM HASN’T BEEN ENOUGH to save Gerhard Schroeder from an electorate that’s unhappy with him for many reasons:

German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder’s Social Democrats were trounced in a regional election in the city-state of Hamburg seen as a key test for his center-left government, exit polls said.

I think it’s a trend:

The Hamburg defeat follows three landslide defeats in major states last year. Further losses this year and next would weaken Schroeder in the run-up to the next general election in 2006.

Gee do you think? What’s unfortunate is that his economic-reform package, though probably inadequate, represents at least some recognition of economic reality. German voters seem even less willing to face economic reality than to accept international political reality.

UPDATE: More on Germany’s problems with reality, here.