I disagree with your take. The margin between the two big parties is around 1% or maybe even less. Hardly a clear mandate for Merkel. And don't you believe that the German media give Schröder an easy ride.
They're not liberals, but social democrats. The liberals (FDP) won big time, but will be in opposition. The Greens and the Left party will be out of power too. So no more Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer, unless by some slim chance the CDU and the FDP ally with the Greens - theoretically possible, but unrealistic at least at the present.
Might want to clarify for those who may not know that "liberal" in Germany in this sense doesn't mean the same thing it does here. The FDP is the closest thing Germany has to the Republican party.