Until now, Merkel's various failings have often been attributed to the fact that she was in a "grand coalition," one of those dysfunctional, only-in-Europe parliamentary governments, the result of a coalition between the socialist left and the Christian Democrat right—somewhat as if the White House were shared out evenly between Republicans and Democrats.

First, what you call "dysfunctional" is actually called "democracy" in some circles. Second, as far coalitions being an "only-in-Europe" phenomenon, ever hear of a country called "Canada"?

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Yeah that got me too. The Electoral College system combined with nine unelected judges resulted in one of those dysfunctional, only-in-America governments back when Dubya got in the first time. Supercilious, much?

so there you go

Like much of Anne's writings, this article fails to impress. I don't know that it informs as much as it misinforms. For example, "she has kept Germany on a relatively even keel throughout the current recession—among other things by refusing to spend what the U.S. administration wanted her to spend." OK, so are we to believe that in Germany, the fate of the economy is determined solely by the Prime Minister--their legislative bodies, businesses, internal and external economic conditions are to receive little or no credit (or blame)? I doubt even Anne believes that, so that leaves her guilty of gross oversimplification, at the very least. One might expect that here in the U.S. from some of the ignorant electorate, who are often too quick to credit or blame the economy on the chief executive, but not from reporters who should be expected to be a bit more knowledgeable and sophisticated.

Furthermore, Anne cites no reason or evidence supporting her claim that spending more to stimulate their economy would have been bad. We're just supposed to take her word on that, despite the fact that she is not an economist. Economists recommend two major ways for government to handle recession: lowering interest rates and directly injecting money into the economy. (Where interest rates are already cut to the bone, like they had been here, that leaves the other option.) Nonetheless, if additional stimulus funds had been allocated and disbursed wisely in Germany, who's to say it couldn't have helped? Maybe Anne has a magic crystal ball that reveals all possible permutations and outcomes.

What this sounds like is a female conservative with an agenda. (See my earlier comment about the preoccupation with gender here.) The best that can be said about this is that she attempts to appear objective. But that isn't necessarily always admirable.