Bush is right to be scared of Angela Merkel

[jmowreader]

According to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Angela_Merkel ...

* She was born in Hamburg, the daughter of a Lutheran minister
* Shortly after she was born, her father accepted the pastorship of a church in the German Democratic Republic. She grew up an East German citizen.
* She has a doctorate in physics from the East German Academy of Sciences, and after graduation worked in quantum chemistry (which applies quantum mechanics to chemical reactions) before entering politics.
* She worked in the East German democracy movement and was a member of the "caretaker" government during the transition from Erich Honecker's DDR to reunification. She was later elected to the Bundestag.
* She's held the cabinet posts of Minister for Women and Youth, and Minister for the Environment and Reactor Safety.
* She is fluent in German, English and Russian.

If I was Bush I'd be scared shitless of Angela Merkel. Not only is she a smart, powerful woman, Superman's X-ray vision can't see through Bush as well as Angela Merkel can.

[ChairmanAgnostic]

1. I disagree

Boy George is not intimidated by smarter women. He surrounds himself with women smarter than he:
Condi Rice
karen Hughes
Jenna
Minnie Mouse

The fact that she is smarter doesn't bother him. What bothers him is that she does not put him on a pedastal like the others, and she does not quiver with excitement at every glance, every touch and every word from him.
Oh, wait. She did quiver at his touch. Or was that a spasm from a pang of revulsion?

[Gato Moteado]

6. i know the media spins condi as being smart....

...but i've seen her speak enough and i just don't see any intelligence in there. i think it's all spin. same goes for karen hughes...she seems neanderthal to me.

but, yeah, i guess they're both smarter than chimpy.

[ChairmanAgnostic]

8. right on all three points!

Condi is a concoction, a creation, a made-up person with a resume so pumped up on steroids that it would shock the most hardened corporate hiring exec. She is shallow, ineffectual, without a sense of global awareness, weak, not very bright, and absolutely a danger to America's future.
Big oil spent a lot of time, money and effort creating her. The problem is, despite all the training, all of the breaks, and way too much responsibility, she still resembles a deer in the headlights stuck on a superhighway.

Just recall how well Karen Hughes' fiendshit tour of the Middle East went. Her inane, culturally insensitive and awkward statements made things worse, not better. hughes was to international relationships what Bolton is to UN cooperation.

And yes, both of them are brighter than he.

[slor]

11. I agree...

these people are all about image, not real intelligence.

[Kellanved]

22. She's smart

As a scholar she's overrated, but she certainly shouldn't be underestimated.

Merkel - well - is rather smart, but is not good at practical politics. She's good at controlling her party (a female protestant from the east leading a western, catholic party), but she's useless at real, day-to-day politics. She's steering the country into a catastrophe - she's spending like crazy.

[wicket]

12. Definitely revulsion

n/t

[jmowreader]

14. Oh, come ON! Don't set the bar that low!

You said he surrounds himself with women smarter than he, which is basically true.

It doesn't take much to be smarter than George W. Bush. A woman too dumb to pour piss out of a boot with the instructions on the heel is still smarter than George W. Bush.

I've personally dealt with Condoleezza Rice. She's not as bright as the in-love-with-Condi media plays her up to be.

Angela Merkel is a genuinely intelligent woman. Bush doesn't do well with those.

[NJCher]

2. very impressive

I had no idea she was so accomplished.

And imagine, The Moron had the nerve to go to a woman this accomplished and give her a neck rub.

And how is it the Germans can elect someone like this and we get this sap bush? What kind of a system produces something like this?




Cher

[Spider Jerusalem]

7. A system...

in which political advancement depends more upon fundraising ability and public presentation than actual accomplishment, and in which most who choose politics as a career path are usually those least fit to hold positions of leadership? A system in which far too many voters are disaffected, half-educated, and ill-informed? A system in which the news media have long since abdicated their function of informing the public, and instead are outlets for entertainment and titillation?

[panader0]

3. That stuff's nuthin a backrub won't fix, next time I'll show her junior

[Crankie Avalon]

But hasn't she been sort of a suckup to Bush? A German Berlusconi?

Or do I have that wrong?

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

15. She's a Conservative, but moderate. Berlusconi is a lunatic. -nt

[Kellanved]

17. She campaigned as a hardliner

Flat-Tax, privatized public health scheme, less worker protection. However, she turned out to be completely ineffective.

She's not a lunatic, though.

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

23. Thanks for the more accurate outline

I based my previous opinion largely on the fact that she accepted to form a coalition government with the Social Democrats.

FLAT TAX? That's evil.

[Kellanved]

25. She didn't have a choice

For that matter: neither had the Social Democrats. The 16th Bundestag is deadlocked; neither camp has enough seats and new elections wouldn't help either.

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

26. So, are both camps resigned to untie at the next election cycle?

Or is there any political shit flying there that we don't know about?

[Kellanved]

28. Basically yes.

Merkel used most of her political credit to secure her chancellorship; it would have been easier for the Social Democrats to settle for a new candidate or a two year period.

Now she's a Chancellor without power: The Social Democrats have the edge in the cabinet and the lower House; the conservative state premiers have it in the upper house. She bought her power by creating four years of a political standstill.

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

29. Some would say that any paralyzed government is a GOOD government. -nt

[BlackVelvet04]

16. EXACTLY......

"In the spring of 2003, defying strong public opposition, Merkel came out in favour of the U.S. invasion of Iraq, describing it as "unavoidable" and accusing Chancellor Gerhard Schröder of anti-Americanism. This led some critics to characterize her as an American lackey. She criticised the government's support for Turkish Membership in the European Union and favoured a "privileged partnership" instead. In doing so, she was seen as being in unison with an overwhelming majority of Germans in rejecting Turkish membership in the European Union, particularly due to fears that large waves of immigration may impose an unbearable burden on Germany and that there would be too much Islamist influence within the EU."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Angela_Merkel

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

24. PING Kellanved

My spider sense says this stance of her against Turkey gave her a boost, while the pro-Bush / pro-war stance was a liability, and those two opposing forces (among other things a non-German wouldn't typically be aware of) added up to her "incomplete" win.

Am I too far off the mark?

[Kellanved]

27. That's true

The Turkish Germans are a pretty big groups, but vote Social Democratic by over 60% (in cities more like 90%). So she didn't lose votes by offending Germans with Turkish ancestry. In conservative circles however, the issue was a real winner. Pure populism.

"Pro war" was a liability, but the fear from losing the close ties with the US equated that.

[C_U_L8R]

4. That's exactly why

Bush resorted to his little frat-boy harrassment...
poor Georgie is intimidated.
How pathetic.

[ChairmanAgnostic]

9. ah, his famous personal touch. yuck.

He probably did not follow what she was saying. After all, more than half her words not only were pronounced correctly, but they had more than three syllables.

[DemonFighterLives]

5. She could mentally beat him to a pulp

And physically kick his ass as well.
:spank:

[Aviation Pro]

10. I guarantee

that this conversation was conducted in Russian:



And the expression on Rice is one of confusion (when in doubt smile):

[ChairmanAgnostic]

13. what a fool.

what a danger posed by her.

Anyone hear Mad. Albright recently? I had forgotten just how smart that woman was/is/will be. When she discusses an issue, she talks from the strength of knowledge, experience and a supreme intellect. When Condi talks, I realize that she is the perfect mouthpiece of this administration. A poster child, in a way.

[Kellanved]

20. Putin's German is better than Merkel's Russian

And they don't like each other. That one was done with interpreters.

[Warren DeMontague]

18. Maybe she'll sneak up behind him, grab his nuts, and twist.

I bet that would get his attention.

[hedgehog]

21. She'd have to find them first.

The magnifying glass might be a little too obvious!

[Kellanved]

19. He's not scared

There's a joke in Germany: "Merkel can tell from the taste of Bush's shoes what toothpaste Tony Blair used." . She's Blair in conservative.