She did a swell job selling herself to foreign capitals as the radical reformer Germany needed. Alas, when it came to putting the same case to her own people, she balked. By the end of the campaign, she was promising little more than some slight tinkering, and even that proved too much for great swaths of eastern and central Germany.
But then writes as if young Germans should have voted for her anyway. I think Merkel's loss is nothing more complicated than the German version of George H.W. Bush's reneging on his "Read my lips: no new taxes." When Merkel promised growth incentives and tax cuts, she climbed to an 11-pt lead. When she announced she'd offset them by raising the national sales tax, she plopped right down on her fanny. In other words, when she was leading a reform, people supported her; when she lost her nerve, they did the sensible thing and looked elsewhere. I think the time is right for a German Thatcher, it's just that Angela Merkel ain't her.
