Wednesday, March 02, 2011

No More Guttenberg



















No more Guttenberg is probably premature as he's likely to be back before long.

After two weeks' kerfuffle about his copy 'n pasting his doctrorate, KT zu Guttenberg wasn't left a lot of options, although Chancellor Merkel seemed happy for him to stay.

But when Professors at your old university start calling you a BetrĂ¼ger (fraud, impostor), when political enemies in your own party are saying how ashamed they are, and the country's tabloids are writing about nothing else, staying on as a minister soon becomes untenable.

If he lies low for a bit and shows a bit of remorse (so ill-suited to his brand before, but necessary now), he'll be well placed to take over in the CSU in Bayern. From there, a bid for the Chancellorship itself is far from unfeasible.

His head-turning popularity among German voters will likely make him think along such lines.