Perhaps in the faint recollection that his Christian Democratic predecessor as chancellor, Helmut Kohl, also ran into a streak of bad election results after coming to power in 1982, yet went on to keep office for a record 16 years.
Even though BP is in trouble, most sell-side analysts know the first rule of job preservation is to throw their support behind a beleaguered company in the faint hope that their firm may get a banking mandate if the company is the target of a takeover or is forced to sell itself.