I note that she is concerned with reviving the EU constitution and disagrees with the French (read: Chirac's) idea of picking individual pieces out of it. Do you get the sense that the German electorate agrees with her on that?
BTW, are you still flying?
Sure. If Chirac wants parts of the constitution to be excluded, he should ask for a completely new debate on the constitution. The Germans aren´t really informed about that paper, since our parliament and the states have decided on that. I would have voted "no", and I´m glad that the French and Dutch refused the proposal. But generally Merkel´s popularity is on the rise. As strange as it may sound for you, but her critcism on Gitmo (what Schröder didn´t dare) combined with her general support for the US and the WOT makes her even more popular.