The New Republic

In early September, while passing through the Frankfurt airport, I watched a press conference on TV in which the German Social Democrats rolled out their new leadership team and set their course for national elections a year later. The mood was somber, almost suicidal. These gray-haired, dour men seemed to be offering themselves up as human sacrifices before the juggernaut of Angela Merkel and her center-right Christian Democrats. Polls only underlined that impression: Merkel was riding high. READ MORE >>

An editorial in Wednesday's Financial Times calls Angela Merkel "Europe's foremost political leader." That she is, and not only because Gordon Brown and Nicolas Szarkozy have turned  out to be bit fluffier than was expected, except by my friend and TNR  contributor Bernard-Henri Levy who crossed ideological lines to vote  for S READ MORE >>