Word: erhards
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...Ludwig Erhard's maiden foray in his six-week election campaign began with an address in the nation's largest egg auction hall. There some 2,000 farmers and their families in the Saxon market town of Cloppenberg stood stolidly as the Chancellor launched into his basic campaign theme for 1965: the need to develop in West Germany a formierte Gesellschaft, meaning a well-ordered society, with equal restraint on government regimentation and private "stomach filling and greed." The Saxon farmers interrupted Erhard neither for catcalls nor clapping, but they chuckled each time he lit another Black Wisdom...
Main reason, of course, is his popularity with the huge mass of voters less interested in political brilliance than in having a solid man at the helm. What is more, Erhard is the man in the middle of three middle-of-the-road parties, and ideally situated to form a coalition with either of the other two in the likely event that the Christian Democrats once again fail to win an absolute majority...
...crisscross the republic on their campaign trains, their speeches will underline how fundamentally similar their views all are. All three are in favor of "new initiatives" in German reunification and for continuing support of NATO and the European alliance. On domestic issues, there are only some small differences. If Erhard fares well but misses an absolute majority, he will probably call on the more congenial Free Democrats again, but some of his followers are muttering about the possibility of a "grand coalition" with the Social Democrats if he does less well...
...long as Erhard is running things. Last week he denounced a grand coalition as an S.P.D. "dream that it can coast through the finish line in the C.D.U.'s sidecar." The Socialists' Willy Brandt hinted that he would be only too delighted to join any coalition at all, since such talk could help him in the campaign...
...Brandt is one of Erhard's greatest assets. Cursed with an undistinguished television image and isolated in West Berlin from most voters, he has so far failed to develop into the charismatic personality the Socialists need. Moreover, despite support from students and intellectuals, his party has done little to exploit the latent "time for a change" philosophy that should militate in its favor after 16 years out of power. The party slogan, "Sicker ist sicker" (roughly, "Play it safe") is designed to reassure voters that, despite their Marxist origins, the Socialists are now a respectable, middle-class party...