At the American Thinker, Nancy Morgan writes, “One of the issues raised in the run-up to our last presidential election was the question ‘Which candidate is best qualified to handle a 3 AM moment?’ America now has a partial answer. It isn’t President Obama:”
Last Friday was Day 4 of the ongoing protests in Egypt, where tens of thousands Egyptians took to the streets to demand the ouster of President Hosni Mubarak. As the situation reached a flash point, with a mounting death toll and Egyptian tanks in the streets of Cairo, President Obama maintained his silence. Well, not quite. He did Twitter, by proxy.
Around noon Friday, White House spokesman Robert Gibbs issued a 22 word statement on Twitter: “Very concerned about violence in Egypt – government must respect the rights of the Egyptian people & turn on social networking and internet.” The White House also informed the media that Obama had received a 40 minute briefing on the situation. Phew!
After the U.S. markets tanked Friday, a full 4 days after the beginning of the Egyptian crisis, Obama finally addressed the nation. As usual, our president first absolved himself of any blame, stating that if only Egypt has instituted the reforms Obama had been suggesting for the last 2 years, the crisis could have been averted. He then went on to make a bold statement about human rights, “…and the US will stand up for them – everywhere.” Period.
By Saturday, the uprising in Egypt had spread to other countries, with waves of Arab protests in Tunisia, Jordan and Yemen. Saturday night, Obama partied. “The Washington A-List was out in force Saturday night at the farewell party for senior adviser David Axelrod, with a roster of guests featuring Cabinet secretaries, big shot journos and Obama.”
On Sunday, with the protests turning into a conflagration, the only word from the White House was that Hillary Clinton, our Secretary of State, was heading to Haiti to “mediate the political crisis.” That’s right, Haiti.
As Morgan writes, “Obama’s 3 am moment has come. And gone. Obama was noticeably AWOL. America is now officially bereft of leadership, at least until the latest polls come in.”
All of which is yet another reminder of which candidate the infamous 3:00 AM moment ad best promoted, albeit unintentionally:
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