Chancellor Gerhard Schröder should have paid more attention in his American history class. Abraham Lincoln once stated that "You can fool all the people some of the time, and some of the people all the time, but you cannot fool all the people all the time." His anti-American rhetoric served as ear-candy for long enough for Schröder to win office, but many Germans are dismayed at how his heavy-handedness has set German-American relations to their lowest point since WWII. They showed it at the polls, handing Schröder, in his own words, one of his most bitter defeats. To make matters worse (from Schröder’s perspective – better from those interested in the truth), German health minister, Ulla Schmidt, has recommended that Germany stockpile smallpox vaccine to guard against a possible terrorist attack. When one’s own health minister believes Iraq has weapons of mass destruction and is willing to share them with other terrorists, it makes it hard to accuse President Bush of not having credible evidence against Iraq. It is past time to stop fooling people, Mr. Schröder. Hopefully the German people will continue to show their displeasure with Schröder’s tactics in future elections. And future students can read about how NOT to run a country by studying Schröder’s short-lived reign.