Exit polls suggest that a major reason for the much worse than expected performance of the SPD (22%) in its area of dominance during the pre-World War II Weimar Republic is that it proposed a much slower process of reunification while the CDU-led Alliance and the Free Democrats (with 53% of the vote) agreed with Kohl on a rapid process of reunification.

CENTERFORSECURITYPOLICY: Introduction

So why was the performance in 1998-2001 so much worse than the historic norm?

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Now that it has been widely reported that departing U.S. Attorneys have either failed to meet performance expectations or that they acted independently rather than follow Justice Department directives, the situation is so much worse.

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