Loud-mouth Newt gets it wrong . . . again

As of Sunday morning, the news out of Egypt sounds promising. The newly appointed Vice President Omar Sulieman has met with opposition representatives and made major concessions, including: guaranteeing freedom of the press, releasing detained protesters, ending the emergency security laws, and setting up a committee of judiciary and political figures to propose constitutional changes. Short of forcing Mubarak to resign immediately and leave the country (we tried to persuade him to do that and he was obdurate, apparently), this should bring hope of real change, as long as it's clear that Sulieman is in charge and has the power to effect these changes.

Of course, it remains to be seen whether these promises will actually be carried out. It appears that restrictions and some attacks on journalists continue. The shift in U.S. position toward active support for a speedy, but gradual, transition of power indicates that we favor this approach and perhaps helped orchestrate it.

The Obama administration has been an active behind-the-scenes force, encouraging change and Mubarak's stepping down but forging it in a way that makes for an orderly transition instead of chaos or the risk of the Muslim Brotherhood stepping into a leadership vacuum. Putting pressure on a flawed but former ally to step down, while still recognizing the important role he has played as an important Middle East stabilizing force -- sounds like the right stance for us to take, and most Republican leaders have respected that and held back on criticizing Obama.

Not so, our own presidential candidate (he indicated last week that he will set up his campaign headquarters in Atlanta) Newt Gingrich, whose narcissistic mirror is telling himself that our country needs him to save it from the liberals and the wimpy internationalists, who are too weak in opposing Islamic extremism. Here's what he said on Sean Hannity's show last week, warning that Egypt could "go the way of Iran" and fall into the hands of an Islamic extremist dictatorship:

I think this is a period of tremendous challenge and is a sign of the general failure of our strategy of not dealing with radical Islamists and not being honest and aggressive of what's going on around the world.

He charged that Obama's administration had not taken the Middle East seriously, suggesting that Obama should not have given that 2009 speech in Egypt, "geared toward repairing America's relationship with the Muslim world."

In short, Newt is forging his stance to appeal to the right-wing war hawks who love nothing so much as war. In other words, we ignore the people's needs and just get rid of their leaders -- thus controlling them by threats and fear. These are the hawks who led us to invade Iraq, who would have us bomb Iran, and throw our weight around in all the other hot spots in the Middle East. In short, they think only the U.S. can determine the right course in the Middle East and that Obama's approach of building bridges of respect and partnership is weakness.

That's what we need. Another hot-headed hawk in the White House.

Newt -- your mirror lies to you.
We do NOT need you as president !!!!!
You are not the "fairest one of all."

Try another mirror, one that's not made out of your own magical thinking. Listen to someone besides yourself.

Oh, darn, I forgot. The is no one besides yourself. That's the problem.

Ralph