Anyone expecting a "blink of an eye" final in the race for the Chancellery should not blink too often on the home straight.
But that is exactly what the CSU leadership does every time they reaffirm that they are fully behind Laschet.
CSU General Secretary Blume now no longer wants to say too clearly that Söder would of course never have landed in these demoscopic lowlands, which now extend deep into Bavaria.
But even Blume's most recent recommendations for the CDU in the event of a “bad election result” make it abundantly clear that Laschet is not expected to produce a good election result in Munich.
Trumpeting out a few days before the election is a form of support that only one person can thank you for: Olaf Scholz.
He should slowly send chocolates to Munich.
Why is Söder doing this?
The question is: why is Söder doing this?
According to the surveys, the CSU does not benefit from the "taunts" against Laschet, which border on sabotage.
If the latter loses the election, then not only in the CDU but also in the CSU will be asked whether Söder is not also responsible for the defeat and its consequences.
In the case of Söders, the outcome of the federal election, unlike in Laschet, does not yet decide whether to be or not. Söder will not get to this point until 2023. In the next state election in Bavaria, he will have to deliver a better result than the miserable result of 2018. A left-wing federal government would offer welcome friction surfaces for Söder's election campaign.
And by 2025 at the latest, whatever would become of the CDU after a clear defeat on that Sunday, the Union needed another candidate for Chancellor.
Wouldn't it then make sense to take a man who has already renewed his party as Blume is now advising the CDU?
And who, as far as the future of the parties is concerned, is mentally further than the older men in the sister party?
Söder would certainly comply with the request to lead the CDU and CSU even more united than before into a bright future - without even batting an eyelid.