Shorter Mubarak (with some poetic license about ulterior motives): 1. A lot of naive but earnest young people are in the streets. 2. Those young people were quickly exploited by political forces (i.e. those who don’t adore me). 3. I’m going to investigate those political forces. A lot. 4. Oh, and I almost forgot, I’m [...]
Will his reported agreement to step down after September’s scheduled elections be enough for the protesters who want him gone now? Reporting from Tahrir Square, Nick Kristof, for one, thinks not. Update: In a televised speech, Mubarak says that he won’t seek re-election, and that elections should be moved up to an unspecified time. A [...]
I’ve been jumping back and forth between CNN and MSNBC the past few hours, waiting for the Mubarak Moment–and anchors on both networks keep on mis-pronouncing Frank Wisner’s name: Wise-ner, they’re calling him. I mean, c’mon. Any anchor worth his/her salt should know who Wisner is and how to pronounce his name–and even that his [...]
Woody Allen captured Washington’s all-too-common mentality from this great moment in Bananas, a movie about dictatorship and revolution (which I can’t promise not to quote again before we’re through): – Any word on where we’re heading? – l hear it’s San Marcos. – For or against the government? – ClA’s not taking any chances. Some [...]
By now you’ve no doubt heard that one of the signature bills of the new Republican majority, H.R. 3 or “The No Taxpayer Funding for Abortions Act,” seeks to make permanent bans on federal funding for almost all abortions by–among other things–limiting abortions for pregnancies caused by rape to those caused by “forcible rape.” No [...]
UPDATED After a week of increasingly pointed but ineffectual rhetorical forays, the U.S. waded directly into Egypt’s turmoil today, dispatching envoys to the opposing parties in an attempt to steer the unrest towards what Hillary Clinton over the weekend called an “orderly transition.” It is a risky move by Obama, putting the U.S. between millions [...]
There’s a lot of interesting back and forth in the neoconservative policy world these days about Egypt and freedom–and in most cases, the neoconservatives are showing an impressive amount of intellectual integrity. Elliot Abrams started the ball rolling over the weekend with this Washington Post piece, supporting the Egyptian protesters even though their victory may [...]
Michael, I thought I’d flag two fine pieces of commentary about Egypt that you might prefer. One, from TNR’s Leon Weiseltier, who is not often accused of insensitivity to Israel: America’s record in crises of democratization, moreover, is more complicated, and more admirable, than Obama seems to recognize. His apparent view that our support for [...]
Ben Smith makes a good point today about how yesterday’s health care ruling might affect 2012 presidential election landscape. Mitt Romney is leading the field, but is believed to be highly vulnerable in the primary season because he ushered in health care reform in Massachusetts while he was governor. That reform plan is extremely similar [...]
Last August, Washington Post columnist Richard Cohen wrote a piece about the thanklessness of Arab populations around the world. “Say what you will about the Arab world, it’s hard to earn its gratitude,” he wrote, pointing to polls that showed declining support among Arab populations for Obama and his policies. In Cohen’s view, this ingratitude [...]
