From PBS:
In an exclusive interview with the NewsHour, Vice President Joe Biden told Jim Lehrer Thursday afternoon that Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, the target of anti-government demonstrations in Cairo, is someone he knows “fairly well” and does not consider to be a dictator. But the “time has come for President Mubarak to begin to move in the direction of being more responsive to some of the needs of the people out there.”…
Look, Joe; either back him, or throw him under the bus – don’t say the man who has been in charge for 30 years isn’t a dictator and then opine that he should stop dictating policy. For crying out loud, please try not to be entirely stupid in these matters.
We hitched our wagon to Mubarak’s regime 30 years ago and it is gotten us nothing in return. To me, its time for a bit of “underbus” with this man and his rotten government – but what we’re getting is incoherence which will make us despised all over the place – by people yearning to be free, as well as the dictators shooting them down in the streets. Whatever betides in Egypt, American policy looks to be the loser.
UPDATE: Pajamas Media has a running update on the events of the day. The most recent entry (6:33 EST) is:
As the protests continue, several people are claiming that the army may be providing riot police and other security forces with live ammunition to use against protesters. This cannot be denied or confirmed yet. Many people inside Egypt on social networking sites — using proxies to connect on the single remaining ISP that hasn’t been blocked by the government — are showing anger and discontent at President Mubarak’s speech and his refusal to cede power.
Jeremy Scahill of The Nation claimed on Twitter that President Barack Obama was on the phone with Mubarak for half an hour. No other source has confirmed this yet.
If that last bit is true, I hope it was a “you can’t get asylum here, and we’ve also frozen all Egyptian assets in the US”. One thing is clear, the people of Egypt don’t like Mubarak and we must cut ourselves loose from him immediately. If we are to have any say in the final settlement, we can’t be tied to Mubarak’s corrupt, cruel and incompetent regime.
UPDATE II: CNN is reporting that Mubarak has dissolved his cabinet (probably trying to dodge and weave to keep himself in power).
UPDATE III: World in crisis, American diplomacy in shambles – what do you do? You try to spin the events to get your man Obama off the hook…
Axelrod: President Obama Has “On Several Occasions Directly Confronted” Mubarak on Human Rights for the Past 2 Years “To Get Ahead of This”
Well, Axe, old buddy, what this before or after Obama’s Cairo speech where he spread a bunch of revisionist historical nonsense to try and make Moslems love us more? We’re really in trouble here, folks – we’ve got complete idiots running the show.
UPDATE IV: Obama’s statement. Not much to say for it – but it is clear that we aren’t ditching Mubarak as of this time.
UPDATE V: Rumor is that Mubarak’s televised statement a bit earlier today was pre-recorded. A bad sign for his regime…
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