Now to anyone paying the slightest attention, “Our President” notably and loudly vacillated and hedged through the first two weeks of Egyptian protests, for which he was routinely criticized by everyone from the softy liberals with the first hint of a hard-on in years at the Egyptians’ spirit of 68 right through Glenn Beck who thought the President had orchestrated an Islamic revolution, or whatever. The President loudly and firmly planted himself at precisely the point of having no position at all whatsoever, hinting only vaguely and in mostly veiled terms that Uncle Hosni probs oughta not appoint the fruit of his own loins as his successor and might want to think about maybe not fixing elections quite so dramatically in the future . . . until at last, when it became obvious to every other human being in the world that Mubarack had to go and that the military would probably see to it that he did if it came right down to it if only to preserve their own vaunted legitimacy within the aparatus of the Egyptian state, only then did Barack Obama step to the mic and issue his habitually schoolmarmish declaration that Egyptias too could Win The Future, a chicken in every pot, an MBA in every Jr. Executive Office.
Like the rest of us Obama was scrambling to catch up to what the fuck was happening in Egypt and why a people that stayed obedient and meek for the past three decades suddenly decided enough is enough. But where most of us little people could see that nothing but the removal of Mubarak and the end of his regime would do for the protestors, our socalled betters still thought meaningless gestures like making the chief torturer Mubarak’s vice president could save America’s investment in Egypt.
Egypt is what happens when a people takes its future into its own hands again, to be able to make its own mistakes again and not be afraid anymore. No wonder our elites are so out of touch. They’re not used to this.
