Media Coach Weighs Contenders: 'Merkel Has Edge Over Steinmeier in Upcoming TV Debate'

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Guido Westerwelle, head of the business-friendly Free Democratic Party (FDP); likely foreign minister if his party gains enough votes to govern with Merkel's CDU

Strengths

• Guido Westerwelle, who studied law, uses short, concise sentences and he articulates his arguments with razor-sharp precision.

• He makes a great effort to be entertaining and he's good at using puns to ram his point home. He's a quick-witted debater who knows how to put down hecklers with a clever retort. He is gradually shedding his image as a joker and cuts a more serious figure these days by expressing himself more carefully.

Weaknesses

• He remains plagued by his old problem -- he's consumed by ambition and puts himself under immense pressure. People can sense that. When Westerwelle talks one still has the feeling he's about to burst. He's like a volcano that's about to erupt.

• His voice is usually too loud and his tone sounds too tense and too labored. His attacking style usually culminates in prophecies of doom that are tiring and almost irritating, and which he keeps on repeating although they never seem to come true.

Recommendations

Westerwelle's polemical assaults don't score points. His aggressive tone often makes him look petty, a bit like a spoilsport. He would be well advised to intersperse his precise, colourful rhetoric with a bit more humor and calmness.

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• Part 1: 'Merkel Has Edge Over Steinmeier in Upcoming TV Debate'
• Part 2: The Contenders' Strengths and Weaknesses
• Part 3: 'Years of Reading Files' Has Affected Steinmeier's Rhetoric
• Part 4: Guido Westerwelle Is 'Consumed by Ambition'