http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/0,1518,594007,00.html
*Angela was more popular than apple strudel when the economic skies were blue, but now DER SPIEGEL has rounded up all of the Chancellor's doubters and they're ritually putting the boot in.
*It's a thankless task to be a national leader in a global recession.
"...she's the one who looks pale, who is under fire.
"It's not just Germany that's mired in crisis, it's Merkel's government. She had hoped to cruise through to the September 2009 general election and win it on her strong opinion poll results. All she had to do was stand by as the rival Social Democrat party wore itself down in perennial infighting. That was her campaign plan for next year.
"Strategy of Silence (((the local journalists have got to fill that news-hole somehow, Angela)))
"Now, though, she suddenly faces the biggest challenge of her chancellorship. She has to get Germany through the crisis. The hour of the Chancellor has chimed, but Merkel is behaving as though she hasn't heard the gong. There are no grand words or grand deeds coming from the chancellery. It's as though Merkel wants to overcome the crisis with a strategy of silence.
"But is that feasible given the prospect of the worst economic downturn Germany has suffered in decades? Just a few weeks ago the experts still predicted that Europe's largest economy would deliver modest growth next year. Now they're forecasting the worst recession since World War II.
The financial crisis is paralyzing world trade and no country is set to suffer more from that development than Germany..."
