We never really learn how great or bad, a leader is until a time of crisis. Aaron Rodgers just showed that he is true leader with his performance in the Super Bowl. Unfortunately, with regard to Egypt, Barak Obama has proved the opposite. He is a PINO, President In Name Only.
Obama followed the same pattern he does with every crisis. He starts by doing nothing. He tries to appear calm and composed, but in reality, just doesn’t know what to do. He tries to appear Presidential, but never really IS Presidential. Then he tries to figure out which way the politically correct winds are blowing so he can pretend to be in charge. Finally, if things turn out bad he quickly shifts the blame and if things turn out good, he is even quicker to claim the credit.
His handling of the Egyptian crisis is beyond pathetic. He started out pretending to be neutral. Then when it looked like the Egyptian government was in trouble and the main stream media was showcasing the “pro-democracy” movement, he started giving the protestors more and more support. While he never actually told Mubarak he had to go, he went publicly on the record saying the time to start the transition is now. He even invited the Muslim Brotherhood to the table. But the reality is that there is no current leader of any opposition group, including the Muslim Brotherhood, that could possibly govern Egypt.
Obama became frustrated and started pretending someone cared about what he was saying. He pointed a finger at the camera and demanded that the transition to a new government in Egypt must start now. Mubarak just ignored him. He hasn’t been in power for 30 years because he is a push over. In addition his friends in the Middle East from Saudi Arabia, Israel, Jordan and even Palestine are urging him to stay. They agreed with Mubarak when he said that if he left he feared his country would descend into chaos and that the Muslim Brotherhood would take over. At this point things appear to be calming down in Egypt, but that could change. Mubarak may or may not leave, but it seems likely that the military will remain in control:
To make things worse, Obama made a big deal about appointing Frank Wisner to travel to Egypt to meet with both the Muslim Brotherhood and Mubarak.
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/03/world/middleeast/03wisner.html
Apparently Wisner was supposed to negotiate a play nice agreement with the brothers and to tell Mubarak it was time to go. But, Wisner came back with a strong message for Obama.
Wisner told anyone who would listen that; in his opinion, Mubarak needed to stay in office in order to oversee a responsible transition. This, of course, was the exact opposite of what Obama was saying. The Obama administration responded by desperately trying to explain how the guy Obama specifically appointed to speak for him, doesn’t actually speak for him.
To complete the insanity, today, there are reports that Obama has decided Wisner was right after all and perhaps Mubarak should stay:
http://www.worldtribune.com/worldtribune/WTARC/2011/ss_egypt0108_02_07.asp
Of course now that Obama appears to have decided to support Mubarak, again, the latest rumors are that Mubarak may go anyway, on a medical leave. (That is exactly the same maneuver recommended by Carter to get the Shah out of Iran and we all know how well that worked.)
In the meantime the situation is Egypt is resolving itself without regard to anything said or done by Obama. He just looks arrogant, silly, incompetent, naïve and irrelevant. It is becoming difficult to find anyone who still takes Obama seriously.
We still don’t know the final outcome in Egypt. The word is out that Obama has put the Marines on standby for an emergency deployment to evacuate Americans from Egypt. Obviously someone is very concerned that things are going to deteriorate rapidly.
The only good news here is that even if Mubarak leaves it appears that Omar Suleiman will take his place, at least temporarily. So far, Suleiman seems like a good choice. He was in charge of the effort to keep the Muslim Brotherhood under control under the Mubarak regime. The only negative I have heard on Suleiman is that Jimmy Carter thinks highly of him. But since just about everyone else also likes him, that is probably insignificant. Even a blind squirrel finds an acorn once in a while.
Obama has now lost credibility with both the left and the right. He has now reduced the power of the Presidency to roughly the same as the English Monarchy. He gets to stay in the White House and make speeches that people pretend matter, but no one seriously considers him to be the leader of the United States. At a time when we desperately need leadership, we have Obama, the President In Name Only.
TDM
I sincerely hope the ignorant voting public that started this mess wakes up to the fact that it takes much more than a change of skin color to make a good president!