OBAMA'S DISGRACEFUL SILENCE ON LIBYA – AT 10:03 P.M. ET:  Compared to the chap who runs Libya, Egypt's Hosni Mubarak was a pussycat.  And yet, Obama ferociously went after Mubarak, demanding that he step down.

But when it comes to Libya, Mr. Obama seems less outraged than he does by the governor of Wisconsin.

Obama's silence has been a major theme around the internet today, and on some news programs.  Foreign news organizations, especially the Brits, have begun to notice.  From Britain's Telegraph:

Once again, the White House has fluffed its lines on the Arab revolution. With Gaddafi’s helicopter gunships strafing his own people, with corpses piling up on the streets of Tripoli, President Barack Obama has remained silent.

Gaddafi is an enemy of America.  Mubarak was an ally of America.  Notice the difference in the treatment.

There must be many, many people in Libya who are fence-sitting at the moment; the right words of support from the president of the United States could make all the difference to a tribal leader, an army colonel, the head of a provincial lawyers’ guild uncertain about throwing in their lot with those already brave enough to take to the streets or disown Gaddhafi.

We used to be a beacon of light.  Now we're a beacon of Obama.

Libya provides an opportunity to divert from the script now prepared for the rest of the Middle East – condemning violence, calling for restraint and respecting the rights of protestors. Col Gaddhafi may not listen to the US, which has little or no leverage on his oil-rich fiefdom, but that is even more reason for the president to forcefully place himself on the right side of history.

The flames of change are already lit in Libya, and the president needs to do his best to make sure they blow in the right direction.

COMMENT:  I dread to ask what the phrase "right direction" means to our current White House.  That may be the question of the decade.

February 22, 2011