This woman has more balls than her male predecessor.
Michael, you must be really happy. I'm just sorry she didn't get a clear majority. I've been out of Germany for about two years now, how's the political climate?
Oh yes, man, I´m really happy! I logged on here for the first time shortly before Christmas 2002, when it became very clear that my government would severely damage the relations with the United States. I found out that these people here are in support for the war against Iraq, and so was I, so I chose to stay. Unfortunately, even though I made clear I was on your side, I registered on a day when all newbies with .de-email-addresses were considered to be trolls. So I was banned three times or so that day. Like a good German, I didn´t give up :-) and checked in the next day. Well, and since then I´ve been trying to heal the wounds caused by the former Chancellor... what was his name?? Of course, Merkel is much better in doing so than I am. :-) We really have a good Chancellor. And uninformed as the average German is, he/she trusts in the government with regard to the foreign policy as much as he/she distrusts the government in domestic affairs. So, by insisting that the US government is our friend, she improves the reputation of America in Germany. You haven´t seen my smile when I saw the President and the Chancellor meeting in the White House! Enough of the boring blah blah.
The political climate is still good for the CDU, with the FDP we´d have a majority in parliament once again, according to polls. But I´ve enough of polls, since we were leading for years before the last election. I don´t wanna be the winner of polls, I wanna be the winner of elections!! ;-)
Oh, and Merkel is more popular than any Chancellor before (of course, polling started in the 70´s, so we don´t know what the people thought of Adenauer).