Rift With Germany Is Next on Diplomatic Agenda

[SpartanDem]

DRESDEN, Germany — After mending fences with the Muslim world in Cairo on Thursday, President Obama might want to keep his diplomatic tools handy for his stopover here, to repair his increasingly strained relationship with Chancellor Angela Merkel.

A rift has quietly opened up between Germany and the United States, marked by official statements of harmony and private grumbling. It is not an outright crisis in relations, but there are underlying tensions and disagreements on matters ranging from the global economic crisis to the future of inmates held at Guantánamo Bay.
.....
Relations were already frosty as the economic crisis deepened and the German government and Obama administration took sharply differing views on how far to push stimulus spending. Mrs. Merkel believed that the Americans were underestimating the threat of inflation. But American policy makers said she did not understand the depth and the significance of the crisis.

In the early stages of the Obama presidency, officials in the Merkel government were dismayed by the scarcity of staff in midlevel positions at the Treasury Department. And Germans remain surprised that an ambassador to their country has not been named more than four months after Mr. Obama’s inauguration. There is a sense that, with his focus split between domestic concerns and the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the new president is taking his staunchest European allies for granted.


http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/05/world/europe/05germany.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=germany%20obama&st=cse

[ClarkUSA]

1. Merkel is a conservative. Perhaps they are waiting for her re-election defeat by a Social Democrat?

[MissHoneychurch]

2. That won't happen

Merkel is going to win again. As much as I wish Steinmeier would win, he won't.

[ClarkUSA]

4. Isn't she in for a tough fight, though? Or are the news stories I've read overblown?

What I'm saying is Presient Obama may not want to give the impression that he thinks the Merkel government is the cat's meow, given his natural inclination towards the Social Democratic candidate.

[MissHoneychurch]

6. It got closer

but the CDU and Merkel are still quite some points ahead of the SPD and Steinmeier.

On a side note: Merkel wants to invite Obama to the event in November, when we will celebrate 20 years re-union. Sounds to me like she is expection to win.

[ClarkUSA]

7. Ah well. Let's hope for the best. You never know what can happen.

Thanks for your perspective. How's Pres. Obama's visit going? I know he's in Buchenwald today, then he's off to Paris, right?

[WinkyDink]

3. He can give her a massage.

[annabanana]

5. He's working on it. . .

(Look at her face)

[PassingFair]

8. Handled.