• John Vinocur: Germany likely to pose challenge for McCain... Frank-Walter Steinmeier enters here. He is the Social Democratic foreign minister who was chief of staff for Gerhard Schröder, before the former chancellor transmogrified into a Gazprom lobbyist and P.R. man. In a speech in Berlin, Steinmeier sounded as if he was calling for the future of Europe's relationship with Russia to be placed on a similar level of weight and value as its involvement with the United States. In Germany, that has the ring of "equidistance" - one of the fantasies of the Schröder-era that Merkel promised to bury. Talking of Europe, Steinmeier said, "Working on a 'peace order,' which includes our trans-Atlantic allies just as it does our eastern neighbors, is and remains today our essential mission and responsibility" story