Angela Merkel's Germany; America-Bashing No Longer in Vogue

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Byline: Jim Geraghty, SPECIAL TO THE WASHINGTON TIMES

ANKARA, Turkey. - Seven months ago in these pages, I wrote that Angela Merkel, then the Christian Democrat candidate in Germany's elections, had not "strained any muscles riding to the rescue of America's reputation" and that she had earned her label as "a letdown." I predicted her assumption to the position of chancellor would constitute only a "moderate improvement" in U.S.-German relations.

Mea culpa, mea culpa, mea maximum dummkopf.

After about five months in office Chancellor Merkel's style has gone from frumpy to feisty, and her rhetoric in office, from an American perspective, has been downright dreamy.

From 1998 to 2005, Germany's voice on the world stage was Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder, offering a dark …