President Obama strode to the podium this morning to address the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, a group that has been enormously and justifiably critical of his war on the private sector. Government bailouts, political “stimulus” dressed up as economic “stimulus,” ObamaCare, cap and trade-cum-EPA super-regulations—to name but a few—have crippled the private economy while expanding the ever-greedy public sector. Like most normal Americans, the Chamber has rightfully been furious at Obama’s big government, big spending, progressive agenda.
Muhammad El Baradei thought that the Gods were smiling on him. After decades of living abroad he used the demonstrations to return to Cairo as “a leading opposition leader” and immediately sought to establish close ties with the Muslim Brotherhood on the assumption was that the West knows him and will trust him to tame the powerful Islamist party. At first the Brotherhood played along hoping El Baradei will provide them with an entre to the negotiations. Alas, things changed.
No, VP Omar Suleiman does not need to become a Mubarak redux ruling Egypt for decades to come. He should merely hold the country together until the promised September elections. Worse things can happen. A Suleiman directed election may be even better provided it permits moderate elements to present a real alternative to the Muslim Brotherhood. There is nothing more perilous than attempts to predict the ultimate outcome of a period of revolutionary chaos. So, please, do not try to convince me and the likes of Tony Blair of the unlikelihood that the Muslim Brotherhood will emerge victorious.
The crossing guard was a squat, balding man in his 70s. He was charged with guiding schoolchildren, kindergarten through fourth grade, safely through a busy intersection every morning and afternoon. At a little more than 5 feet tall, he was shorter than some of the fourth-graders he directed across the street. If not for the huge stop sign he wielded to halt traffic, one might be forgiven for getting the impression that it was they leading him safely to the sidewalk.
Remember during the waning days of the 2008 Democrat primary race, when Hillary Clinton was particularly flailing and desperate as her impending loss to Barack Obama became clearer? She ran a TV ad showing sleeping children. In the background, you could hear a telephone ringing. It ended up being the phone in the president’s private residence, waking him (or her!) at 3am with word of an international crisis somewhere. Hillary posed the question: why would you turn over the position of U.S. Commander in Chief to someone who had zip experience in national security matters? (Of course, neither did she, but that’s an issue for another day.)
What a bender. The government in Tunisia is gone. Hosni Mubarak teeters in Egypt. King Abdullah has sacked his government in Jordan. The Israelis are blind sided. It looks like the end of the world as we know it. But do we feel fine?
