[Mavdog]

Merkel is a very interesting politician. Born in West Germany but taken by her parents to East Germany where her father was a Lutheran pastor, she experienced a lot od=f discrimination against her by the communists due to her father's occupation.

She was a Schroeder supporter early on but later fled to find herself as a leader of the opposition.

She was asked to stand aside for the last election, which put her in charge when the candidate she stepped aside for lost. good bet on her part.

now she is saying the German model is broken and she has the medicine to cure what ails it. from the election results, it seems that the german public may not be on the bus yet.

one of her main planks was to institute a flat tax. that caused a ton of doubt from the left of center voters who felt it would hurt the poor.