But for Merkel, the hardest pill to swallow is that America, her paradise, has brought her President Barack Obama. In the election, she favored his opponent Hillary Clinton, out of “female solidarity.” Besides, Obama poses a threat to the view, so useful to Merkel, that politics cannot be fun and inspiring.
Her approach to politics, at any rate, isn’t. Merkel, who can be very entertaining privately, runs her country with a calculated blandness — a deliberate effort not to upset anyone or rock the boat. This too is based on a well thought out script, but it is not one that would be of any interest to Hollywood, which she will also visit this week. Her script is more suitable for the kind of late-night television program likely to put its audience to sleep.
When Obama conducted his election campaign in 2008, the sedate Germans were flabbergasted. This was politics? A man speaking with passion and convincing half of the world that change was imminent? He offered American voters a vision that included groundbreaking healthcare reforms and a world without nuclear weapons. It was perfectly staged, and instead of calculated blandness Obama showed calculated charisma. Almost three-quarters of Germans wanted him to become president.
Join the conversation as a VIP Member