Merkel is the Message

"WHAT oratory is to Barack Obama, the photo-opportunity is to Angela Merkel. In a red parka before a receding iceberg in Greenland; among dark-suited world leaders, one of them yet distinctive in her signature trouser-suit; sombre in black alongside Mr Obama at the Buchenwald memorial site. Through such images, the chancellor has defined herself in the eyes of her fellow Germans as a leader who holds her own in the highest councils and masters the knottiest problems."