But even local elections seem far off - maybe fall or winter of next year.

Their reaction, more than the results, has made the election seem like a rout.

Thus, in many ways, the election seems to be boiling down to memory - or lack of it.

In some quarters, of course, language or cultural divides make the election seem far away.

But Germans do not seem to want major economic change, and this election, at the end, seems to be turning on foreign policy.

For the most part, the election seemed to occur without major problems.

At times, the election seemed somehow to move beyond politics.

Administration officials said they would make no formal statements today about whether the elections seemed to be fair.

Their election seems in the end to owe more to the system than to the voters.

The 1998 election seems to have been his last bid for public office.