Egypt becomes 2012 fodder
(CNN) - Potential 2012 GOP presidential candidates are slowly wading into the uprising in Egypt, all concerned about the ripple effects throughout the world.
Former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty went the furthest, calling for Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak to step down.
"I think his time is going to come to an end. It should come to an end," Pawlenty said Monday according to The Des Moines Register. "But as that vacuum gets filled, we want to do all we can to make sure it gets filled by institutions and people and leaders that share our principles, and values of freedom and democracy and human rights."
The Republican former governor said the Egyptian political infrastructure isn't "well-prepared for change," partly because the United States "allowed this vacuum to materialize underneath Mubarak."
Speaking to the Knesset, Israel's legislature Monday, former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee said the protests may have international consequences.
"The events of the past few days in Egypt have created a very tenuous situation, not just for Egypt, not just for the Middle East, but for the entire world, and the destabilization of that nation has the potential of cascading across the globe," Huckabee said, according to The Jerusalem Post.
As part of his trip, Huckabee met with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday.
Anti-government demonstrations started Tuesday throughout Egypt demanding an end to Mubarak's 30-year rule. Egyptians are protesting high unemployment, government corruption and poverty in the country.
Former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum compared the situation to the 1979 revolution in Iran that resulted in the overthrow of Iran's monarchy.
"We abandoned (the shah) and what we got in exchange was form the people if you will, notionally, was a radical Islamist regime," Santorum said Friday in an interview on Fox Business Network. "That happening in Egypt would have a profound effect on the Middle East."
"Let's be clear what the stakes are for the United States. We have an authoritarian regime in power that has been our ally," former U.N. Ambassador John Bolton told Fox News. "We don't know at this point what the real alternatives are."
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Does he even have a clue what he is saying?!?!?!?!!! Let the President decide the message for the U.S. I guess Pawlenty thinks the U.S. can afford to prop up yet another country when it goes into pure choas when their leaders are ousted (i.e., Iraq). Easy to stand on the sidelines but if he knew the real intelligence behind all of this he would go sit in the corner, suck his thumb, rocking back and forth. Let the people of Egypt decide. Hopefully he does not wind up leaving office the same way he got into power 30 years ago.
Haven't we interfered enough in foreign countries. Wars and now telling Egypt what to do. I wish Tim and the republicans would have told bush what to do and not wasted 6,000 lives in wars that have done nothing, but turn the middle east against us and the leaders we supported!
It is perfectly obvious that Obama wants to install a radical anti-American Islamic dictatorship in Egypt. All of this actions to this moment point to that. And CNN sits with its head up its ass.
Obama's foreign policy of bows, apology, and appeasement is being shown for the disaster that it is. Obama seems to have gone to the Jimmy Carter schoold of foreign policy because he seems to be taking the nation down the same path with Egypt that Jimmy took us down in Iran. Utter disaster! Nevertheless, Republicans should keep there mouths shut in public until this thing settles down. Our nation can't have dozens of foreign policies, only one. Elections have consequences so we are stuck with Obama, like we were stuck with Jimmy Carter. Lord help us all!
Republican leaders need to put a lid on it. Because they are high profile Americans, they could be seen as speaking for the United States and create real mess.
The Logan Act forbids Americans from negotiating with a foreign government without permission. While this is not strictly negotiating, it comes awfully close. And before the eyeball spinners start shrieking about Richardson, he doesn't go to North Korea without a Presidential cachet.
Back to racing around using the Egyptian upheaval for American political purposes – Huckabee and Pawlenty need to shut up.
Why don't WE American's do ourselves a favor . . . STAY OUT OF THIS ONE!!!
Go go the Egyptians!! Yaweh will set you free!!!
I can't believe we are second guessing the will of the Egyptian people. If we fail to cease the opportunity to stand shoulder to shoulder with the people of Egypt in their quest for the values that we hold dear and profess to all, history will judge us in the west poorly.
It takes a GOP potential candidate to call on Mubarak to yield to the will of the people. The people have spoken, the sooner he leaves the better off it will be for Egypt.
Go Egypt go!
They can all take any position they want, that is convenient to their political aspirations, knowing full well they are irrelevant. Only what Hilary and Obama says matters.
Their positions are for their base, no one else......
Wow! Tim Pawlenty wants Mubareck to step down, and says "we want to do all we can to make sure it gets filled by institutions and people and leaders that share our principles, and values of freedom and democracy and human rights." What a novel idea. Prior to this intelligent statement, toilet training was probably the last original idea he had.
How about we let Egypt decide their own fate, but I guess we never learn from previous mistakes, freaking insanity man, let them decide what they want!!!!
Huh? We abandoned th Shah? He fled Iran, while we kept defending the dictator. Let's not rewrite history.
I wish Gov. Pawlenty would quit making a fool of himself and embarrassing Minnesota.
Gee is our ex-governor going to get Palin and Bachmann and go to Egypt and force him out. Wimps all three. I can not stand Phewlenty.
A million people or more will hit the streets on Wednesday to march!! That's a lot of unrest and should mean something! What? Something needs to be done and we better be on the right side!!
Mubarak should not be let down. He deserves an honorable chance at exiting. He has played such a major role in containing terrorists and other extremists for 3 decades, after taking a bullet. Egyptian Muslims want a more fundamentalist regime, as you can tell listening to many protesters. Many of them are being deceived by the talk of freedom. This could be their leap from the fry pan into the fire.
I also want to extend the list for running for GOP presidential nomination....it will be my way or no way .....meaning we will tear each other apart until voters lose at out taste in their mouth......then I will defect to my democratic party and rally behind our multiracial and smartest president . In any case he need enough time to fix the global economy.
All these Monday morning quarterbacks need to keep their yaps shut. President Obama and Secretary of State Clinton have a lot more intelligence and actual ears and eyes on the ground; let's let them do their jobs and stay out of their way.
Just like the repugs like to use ideology instead of common sense and research before jumping into insinuation and cause chaos; where is the weapons of mass destruction, You mean we kill hundreds of thousand of people and destroy a whole country on a lie? Leave it up to the repugs to jump into something without taking the time to annalyze the situation and cause havoc and chaos, and try to find someone to blame, I wonder what would have happened if McCain and Palin had won the election, oooh it shudders my mind to think about our plight and where we would be right now. All the repugs do is outsource our industries, and now the health care industry one of a very few industry that left, the repugs got the courts to dismantle it, leaving millions of healthcare students stranded in college, and millions more stranded without means to help them when they're sick, the insurance companies is bck in the drivers seat again thanks to the repugs and tea baggers, Now America is a cluster of sales industries which sells other country's manufactured products. How long can America survive without a firm foundation of creating our own product or means to exist.
Why can't America stop concerning it's conceited self for having the rest of the world share its view and have a concern of the a shared humanity or world view.
This is the not the world of America, or does America insist on being the world's Authoritarian ruler?
Peace, love and unity
He may as well the unrest in Egypt will not stop until he does or they take over by force. Either way the U. S. Better not step in to help. Obama has already offended most of our allies an now that the Dictater in Egypt is about to fall Egypt will not be friendly to the U.S. even though they want a Democratic government. Nobody trusts a moran who will not salute his own Nation's flag or bow to the Queen of England. He must go all he wants to do is funnel money down to the lowest of wage earnings and people who do not even pay taxes and who are not citizens. But yet he expects us the taxpayer to pay their way. I am a pensioner and I have already been hit with a 4% tax increase. But so far supposely he hasn't raised the taxes. BULL CRAP READ IT AND WEEP AMERICANS. DON'T KEEP THIS EVIL LYING PERSON IN OFFICE. HE MUST GO. HIS KIND OF CHANGE WE DO NOT NEED.
This just in: All congressional republicans blame Obama for the Lincoln and Kennedy Assassination. In a prepared speech today Senator John "never let a good crisis go to waste" Kyl, AZ("state nuttier than a fruitcake) said that Obama should have done more to prevent these two assassinations. Kyl states: "These clearly happened under his watch. He failed to take action even though he was not in office at the time and had not responsibility to do so. This was a clear failure to lead as usual by this weak president.
I am quite sure that there are pictures somewhere of Kyl kissing the president of Egypt's hand and professing his love for him and his country. Kyl needs to get off his high horse.
So among Republicans there's the pro-protestors (Pawlenty), the middle road of caution crowd (Huckabee), and the pro-dictator-who-is-our-buddy (Santorum). Should make for an interesting primary.
CHANGE YOU CAN BELIEVE IN
Year 3 of unemployment
In 2008 a mistake we did make and a man named Obama was elected
you see in a push to get rid of George Bush we neglected to pay close attention
now two years in we can see that the whim
was based all upon hype and conjecture!
The funny thing is, if the govorner of a region of the middle east suggested ANY United States politician step down there would be a huge outcry from all of us for them to shut up and mind their own business. Funny how we feel we can tell other countries what to do but won't allow it to happen to us.