Posted on 02/12/2011 10:22:04 AM PST by SeekAndFind
An instant classic from Newsbusters. Shot for shot, for pure ignorance and sycophancy, this might be Tingles’s all-time most surreal moment. And not merely because of the Obama messianism involved, either — although, to be sure, that’s plenty surreal too under the circumstances. In fact, Tapper’s updated his post from earlier this afternoon with a few more fun facts about how little the White House cared for democracy in Egypt until now. Not only didn’t we need The One to “have this happen,” he actually cut the financial lifeline that could have brought it about sooner:
Windsor tells ABC News that the administration gave roughly “7 million dollars of assistance to civil society, but they made a decision that that assistance would only go to those groups that were approved by the Egyptian government” – contrary to the policy of the Bush administration. “For several years, assistance was going to independent as well as to registered groups, and this policy was changed unfortunately.”…
As covered at length by the Washington Post’s Glenn Kessler, for fiscal year 2009, the Obama administration “immediately halved the money for democracy promotion in Egypt; the civil society funds were slashed 70 percent, to $7 million.”
Says Windsor: “The attitude of Obama administration toward the pro-democracy movement was to put them at arm’s length, and make sure that US interaction with the pro-democracy movement did not in any way ruffle the feathers of a dictatorial regime.”
So, fine. Matthews is an Obama apologist who doesn’t know what he’s talking about. Nothing groundbreaking there. But … what’s with this line?
And here he is, and he comes into office, and this jubilant situation in Eqypt, with the first time in our lives we get to see people from the Arab world in a very positive democratic setting.
You could read that one of two ways. If by “democratic setting” he’s including electoral settings, then he’s grievously insulted the Afghans and Iraqis who turned out to vote over the past decade knowing that suicide bombers could (and did) show up at the polling place. If by “democratic setting” he means something more revolutionary, then why doesn’t Lebanon’s Cedar Revolution that ended Syria’s occupation in 2005 qualify? Mass demonstrations, a dictator on the run, no bloodshed — all the “very positive” elements were there too. Granted, that moment has now come to naught, but then this might come to naught too. And this time, it might not take five years. Read this smart piece by David Frum about how the path to liberalization in Egypt runs through economic growth, which is bad news given (a) the military’s cartel-like control of industry and (b) the fact that growth almost certainly won’t happen fast enough to satisfy impatient Egyptians. His conclusion, I think, is spot on:
But the most likely course is also the most depressing: Egypt opens a little, then closes again. The regime tries to buy popularity by bloating the state sector. It emits nationalist noises against the United States and Israel, downgrading co-operation with former partners. Its foreign policy pivots away from the West and toward Turkey and Iran. In this scenario, Egypt’s future would resemble its Nasserist past: exploiting nationalism to justify authoritarianism. The new dawn will yield to the old twilight.
Will Matthews “credit” Obama if that disaster ends up happening? Of course not. But at least we’ll get another all-time classic “Hardball” moment when he tries to explain it away.
” It’s as if we needed Obama to make this happen “
To err is human - to really screw things up, it takes a Democrat....
“The attitude of Obama administration toward the pro-democracy movement was to put them at arm’s length, and make sure that US interaction with the pro-democracy movement did not in any way ruffle the feathers of a dictatorial regime.”
You have got to be ****ing me!
lOl! King Obama has been in every angle of this thing from day one!
I think it gets clearer by the day with the constant idiotic statements Matthews keeps making, he has to be doing drugs or is an alcoholic, or both. He has lost all sense of reality. He is on drugs.
Despondent Chris Matthews Praises ‘Strong’ Mubarak; Slams Hillary and Obama
Wasn’t Matthews the same idiot trying to blame Bush for Egypt’s uprising, which means a negative, and now is giving Obama credit for it, which means he now thinks it is a positive? Matthews is on drugs.
This mess is far from over. Mubarak leaving could be one of the biggest boondoggles of this century.
We will have to wait and see in spite of Little Chrissy having nocturnal emissions over it.
The only way Chrissy could get whiplash is if Zero suddenly sat down....
Obama probably didn't even break a sweat in making the Egyptian revolution happen. After all, he made the sun come up and the tide come in yesterday.
By Monday , Mr *cautious diplomacy* will be backing the riots in Algiers.
what exactly have the egyptians gained? about 1 per cent of them protested an aging dictator who was on the way out, the army was not about to let the son stay on in his place, they’ve appointed another , even worse, strongman to take charge, and they may or may not have unrigged elections in september, business as usual. And now they may have Islamic rule on top of it. Yep, they won big
I wish zero would take him to dinner one night so he will shut up already
The media coverage has been a complete sham
Matthews vowed to make Obama a success. He must seize upon each and every opportunity to put Obama in a positive light since there are so few.
Obama is the substitute teacher of national leaders. If we’re so pro ‘international’, where are the Western leaders with the joint declarations? I think the rest of the crowd knows there something going on. Just makes me curious.
Mathews is an Idiot!!
Egypt has gained nothing.
We have lost an ally
We need to get real here.
If, by some magic, things turn out well with Egypt the history books will lavish endless praise on Obama. Should it not turn out well then those same books will trace the ‘Egyptian Tragedy’ to Bush and Condi’s Democracy initiative.
Leftists are always delighted to see America’s enemies empowered.
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