I am not an expert on this. However, I believe, in the case of Sarkozy, he did by not allowing his candidacy become a "referendum on the U.S." He shaped the debate, and won on a combination of issues as well as his vision and style. This is what a successful politician must do.
Eastern Europe is very different from western Europe
I can’t speak on France... but have some first hand knowledge on Germany. Anti-Americanism IS the driving ideology in most peoples foreing policy thinking. From left to right, with few exceptions. The Anti-American (anti-US conservative) image gets hammered into their heads daily by most of their media. It’s worse than the US MSM. Now as you know all politics are local. The Merkel win has few to do with Schroeder’s US relations. It’s domestic policy and European policy they care about. Every survey and the current Parliamentary politics show an unwillingness to fight in the WoT. They talk about their quasi-nonexistant Afghanistan engagement as if it compares to the US mission in Iraq. You know the talking points:”quagmire” etc.
There is no denying that, Europeans (West Europeans that is... not Poland, Czechs or Denmark etc.) have strong elitist, anti-american attitudes.