Reflections on Sunday night's lackluster debate between Angela Merkel of the Christian Democrats and incumbent Chancellor Gerhard Schröder of the Social Democrats continues to dominate German opinion pages on Tuesday. Though most feel media-savvy Schröder gave a better performance, Angela Merkel fared far better than most believed she would and even managed to maintain a smile through the entire 90-minute affair. Two days on, both parties are claiming victory for their candidate. But with the Social Democrats still trailing in polls by a huge gap -- determining who actually won the debate is just an exercise in timesink.

The conservative Die Welt can barely disguise the ennui its editors must have felt during the debate, calling it a "sterile, staged and long-winded" event. But the paper says that both Merkel and Schröder were somehow winners of the debate, which was televised on four different stations and had more moderators than participants. "Merkel because she did better than expected and Schröder because he was populist and media savvy, as always." But the win for Schröder is a temporary one, since polls show Merkel is streets ahead and the incumbent is about to be shown the door. Nevertheless, the paper still predicts a cliff-hanger vote on Sept. 18. Support for the SPD is growing and a shift of as little as 2 to 4 percent in the polls could determine the difference between a change of government and a "grand coalition" of the Social and Christian Democrats.

This election has been filled with debate about the enormous challenges Germany faces -- all of them very real -- writes the center-left Süddeutsche Zeitung. But on Sunday, "the discussion got bogged down in the pettiness of percentages and cents." The debate paints the election as a referendum on the tax overhaul plan being proposed by Merkel advisor Paul Kirchhof. But the paper warns that the man shouldn't be seen as some sort of "ex deus machina" discovered by Merkel. After all, the paper asks, where will his reforms take us? Will sports clubs have to shut down because they can no longer afford to pay the expenses of their volunteer organizers? That wouldn't be good. Or what if the social system collapses because of a dramatic decline in tax revenues? That wouldn't be good, either. At the same time, the paper criticizes Schröder for his inability to articulate exactly where the reforms he wants to continue to push through will take the country. But heck, "at least Germany now knows that Merkel can smile through an entire program, and this has won her support." But that's little solace for the editorialist, who then asks, dryly: "Where were the major political questions? Where was the debate about social justice? And how can we create jobs?"

The business daily Handelsblatt also riffs on the debate's lack of substance. "Germany is world champion in exports and the third-largest economy in the world, our troops are in Bosnia, Kosovo and Afghanistan," the paper writes. "But none of this was talked about during the debate. Instead, we saw 90-minutes of self-contemplation." The paper hammers Merkel hard for focusing too much on tax cuts. "Of course the domestic reform agenda in Germany is important," the paper opines, "Germany's future position in the world depends on whether our enormous economic and social problems are solved." Merkel, it says, is better at looking to the future than her rival. "But it's misleading to give people the impression that Germany's problems can be solved with a constant debate about tax reform," it concludes. "We need to talk about how Germany can grasp the opportunity presented by globalization."

What the debate did show, argues an editorial in the center-right Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, is that a central issue has finally been found for the campaign, two weeks before the election: Kirchhof's tax overhaul plan. By bringing Kirchhof in as her advisor, the paper argues, Merkel is making it clear that her reform agenda extends beyond that of the incumbent chancellor. A savvy politician, Schröder senses danger in Kirchhof -- after all, tax cuts are promises most people like to hear. Schröder knows this and, since he can't really use the flooding in the United States and the Iran conflict as campaign issues, he's instead trying to paint Kirchhof "the professor from Heidelberg," as a George W. Bush-like figure who would jeopardize freedom and justice in Germany. "But in light of the time Kirchhof spent as a justice on Germany's highest court, that's just absurd," the paper argues.