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ABC's Donvan called Mubarak "about the most loyal ally we could imagine, a keeper of Egypt's peace with Israel, an opponent of extreme Islam, who sent his own forces into battle against Saddam Hussein when we asked in 1991." So the final angle the network newscasts found to bring the Egypt story home to their American viewers was to monitor President Barack Obama's public diplomacy towards his longtime ally--an ally, CBS' White House correspondent Chip Reid pointed out, whose regime had received $68bn in US aid over three decades. CBS' Reid had the most consistent insight. "The President walked a fine line today," he reported last Thursday as Obama called Mubarak "very helpful" yet called reform "absolutely critical." On Friday when Obama endorsed the civil rights of protestors and denounced violence to suppress them, Reid mused that "he is still walking that fine line." Monday, when Obama called for an "orderly transition" instead of demanding Mubarak's resignation, Reid interpreted that as "walking a very fine line." NBC's Mitchell used a different ambulatory metaphor, "an awkward diplomatic straddle."
Whatever President Obama does or does not say, at root the events in Egypt are not a foreign policy story. It is an internal drama being played out by the people of Egypt, trying to shape their own future. NBC's Savannah Guthrie quoted Obama thus: "It is not the role of any other country to determine Egypt's leaders. Only the Egyptian people can do that." CBS' Reid vouched for the sincerity of that sentiment after talking to the President's unidentified aides: "It is not window dressing. It is something he believes in very strongly."
And the network newscasts have been most successful over the first week of this crisis when they have emulated that approach--telling the story as an Egyptian one without trying to shoehorn an American angle, with correspondents on the spot to bear witness.
Alfred Bundy comments by e-mail:
As news cameras turn from beaten Egyptian protesters, you can be sure all sides will soon start beating up the President. The Left will excoriate Obama for not rushing in to support the protesters, always assumed to be democratic reformers in the mold of Thomas Jefferson, and the Right, for turning his back on a time-tested ally. Journalist Sam Stein's article last Tuesday bemoans how Obama's not making anyone happy with his reaction to the Egypt crises. Apparently, Obama was to either use his bully pulpit to cheer on the protesters, with promises of aid to come, or hunker down with Murabek in a stubborn bid to keep his regime afloat.
What President Obama did was to wait, watch and gather information, information updated by the hour. NSC spokesman Tom Viettor says, "We have people in the State Department in particular that have long-established contacts in the region that watch what their friends are tweeting or putting up on Facebook, literally," he said. "We talk to press in the region and get assessments from them. We talk to U.S.-based reporters who have gone over there. Our embassy has reached out to as broad a cross-section of government officials, NGO activists, anyone who they can talk to, people even in the business community ... There is a vast web of interactions that are feeding a 24-hour cycle of updating information."
What a novel idea. Get informed, then act. Stein complains that Obama is "forever one step behind" events in Egypt. Well, of course he is. Egypt is not a chess game, in which you move a piece according to strategy. Unlike game pieces, humans will push back. The most universal critique of US foreign policy is that, at moments like this, the US reacts according to ideology, not fact. We either embrace reformers who turn out to be dictators, or embrace dictators, our old "friends" who are enemies of their own people. What President Obama seeks to do is get a feel for what is truly happening in Egypt before rushing forward with a plan, a plan which could create disaster if we back the wrong horse.
Today is Obama's first Press Conference since the Egypt crisis began, but the slings and arrows won't start for another day or two, when the Palin-folk will accuse him of being soft on Jihadists, and the Left will tell him he ignored pleas from Egypt's enlightened reformers. Well, here's what White House Senior Advisor David Axelrod has to say about that: "You want to respond in a way that's thoughtful and constructive, and sometimes with foreign policy, the most constructive answer isn't necessarily the most visceral or satisfying." I think President Obama got it right.
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