When Obama receives letters from academics at home urging action, and street protesters abroad point to inaction, then the conclusion is clear: our president is not participating, much less leading, in the charge for freedom.
Given our past support for a tyrant, there is an enormous danger in not being a partner in Egypt's call for change.
The longer America waits to oppose Mubarak, the more irrelevant Obama's administration will become in Egypt's new political structure. If you 'SAY' that America has a stake in Egypt's future, then by all means 'ACT' as if you do so.
As the saying goes, 'you can pretend to care, but you can't pretend to be there'. Unfortunately, Obama's policy remains positioned in the past, a past that has been a decided failure when it comes to America's standing in the Middle East. 'There' is now Egypt's 'people movement'.
Embrace change. It is time to renounce the US alliance with Hosni Mubarak's regime and announce that any future aid will only be discussed with a democratically elected government. Simple but powerful.
Update...making the case.
To the naysayers who say that Mubarak, Egypt, and 'measured reform' is just 'real politik'.
Mubarak's 17-30,000 political prisoners?
Mubarak's state of emergency that mostly extends back to 1967?
Mubarak being named one of the most oppressive regimes consistently for the last 30 odd years?
All that, and you insist that we shouldn't take a side?
$1.3 billion/year in military aid to a dictator might suggest that from a historical perspective, America has taken a side.
Can we 'change' that perspective? Yes, we can.
Obama would be the singular president (having an Arabic name and all that), that could convince the Arab street that he was just waiting for an excuse to lead reform in the Middle East. Tunisia and Egypt have now given him that 'excuse'.
Egypt presents a pivot point. History is taking a hard turn, making it that much more difficult to see back beyond the hard turn. We can find a way for the newly hopeful people of Egypt to temper their memory of America's sordid past. This is an opportunity to make redemption, to beg for forgiveness, a decision that could make for shorter memories.
As to precedence? Well, a black, Arabic named president did unprecedented things here. Likewise, I would suggest that 'over there', our 'Muslim' president could do bold things that his predecessor would not have had the credibility to undertake.
To the Arab street, America's past will matter little unless Barak Hussein Obama chooses to continue it. Egypt now pivots. Will America pivot with them, or march the route laid down by the past?