As far as I can see Wowi and Steinmeier are both damaged goods as well. Wowi lost the suit of Berlin against the federal government for aid in reducing the deficit and IMO made a mistake in going into a unstable second red-red coalition instead of opting for red-green. Politically it made some sense, but in terms of policy and governance, not so much.

Steinmeier still has to face some questions on the case of Murat Kurnaz.

Merkel, by the way, has an approval rating at mid-time of 76% (de). If nothing major (very, very major) changes, this means that the SPD can't fight the next elections on personality, as they did with the last.