And Another Weasel Bits The Dust

He wasn't quite as sore a loser as Al Gore in 2000, but Germany's Gerhard Schroeder finally admitted that he was beaten in the last election.

And so, another weasel bites the dust. One main platforms in his opponent's platform was improved relations with the United States.

"[Angela] Merkel, 51, has promised to revive the once-mighty German economy by paring the country's extensive but increasingly unaffordable social safety net. The jobless rate in Germany, the world's largest exporter and third-largest economy, hit a record high of 12 percent this year, and growth has been weak for years.

Merkel has also pledged unspecified steps to improve relations with the United States, traditionally Germany's closest ally, and put behind the tensions of the Schroeder years."