I'd assumed Angela Merkel was home and dry, but according to the Telegraph the result could go either way:
"It's going to be a thriller," Peter Loesche, a Goettingen University pollster. "It's 50-50. A shift of two or three percentage points to the Social Democrats and you could get a situation like 2005." The cautious strategy adopted by the woman who has led Germany since 2005 has failed to either satisfy CDU supporter or win over floating voters. Even the party's signature issue of tax cuts has received only a lukewarm endorsement from the woman who is supposed to be its chief proponent. Frustration with Mrs Merkel's prickly personality has spilt over at party rallies where groups of demonstrators mock her pronouncements by chanting "Yeah, Yeah, Yeah".
[Photo: Signs placed on chairs at the Arena Berlin prior to the CDU's final election rally / Sean Gallup/Getty Images]
Apologies for the lack of posts, but I've gone down with a bug and have spent the day in bed. Re-runs of "Seinfeld" are about all my brain can handle at the moment
Marbury and John Rentoul try to work out whether or not Gordon Brown really was snubbed in New York. Me, I'm reminded of George's desperate attempts to get some face-time with cool dude Tony (recovering from a rock-climbing accident which is, obviously, a metaphor for the Libyan imbroglio.)
As poor George explains, "It's a different world when you're with a cool guy". Amen, say all those world leaders clamouring to catch Obama's eye at the UN.
The Atlantic's article on the new online Establishment prompts some heretical thoughts at Crooked Timber:
Bloggers have undermined the blogosphere. Bloggers do not link to each other as much as they used to. It’s a lot of work to look for good posts elsewhere, and most bloggers have become burnt out. Drezner and Farrell had a theory that even small potato bloggers would have their day in the sun, if they wrote something so great that it garnered the attention of the big guys. But the big guys are too burnt out to find the hidden gems. So, good stuff is being written all the time, and it isn’t bubbling to the top. Many have stopped using blogrolls, which means less love spread around the blogosphere. The politics of who should be on a blogroll was too much of a pain, so bloggers just deleted the whole thing.
A sceptical take from the French art-blogger Lunettes Rouges, who's been touring a new exhibition at the Grand Palais. Contrasting and comparing with Bonnard, he places two paintings side by side to startling effect: it's the same woman, but a different world. Art Daily takes a look at the show as well.
I'd assumed Angela Merkel was home and dry, but according to the Telegraph the result could go either way:
A sceptical take from the French art-blogger 
Previous
