Obama Edges Away From Mubarak

As Egypt is spiraling out of control, President Obama “reiterated our focus on opposing violence and calling for restraint; supporting universal rights and supporting concrete steps that advance political reform within Egypt.” This statement, coming at the end of Obama’s Saturday meeting on Egypt, combined with the fact that the administration has not repeated Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Vice President Joe Biden’s defenses of Mubarak as providing stability, have led observers to believe that the administration is preparing for the fall of Mubarak. The question is who will succeed him. Mubarak’s son, Gamal, seems a less likely candidate now that he’s fled the country for England, and the protesters probably won’t be appeased by Mubarak’s newly appointed vice president, Gen. Omar Suleiman, a Mubarak confidant who has worked closely with the U.S. Meanwhile, GOP presidential hopefuls, including Sen. Rick Santorum and Mike Huckabee, warn of the rise in Muslim extremism that Mubarak's fall could unleash, comparing the unrest to the 1979 revolution in Iran. Huckabee said, “If in fact the Muslim Brotherhood is underneath much of the unrest, every person who breathes ought to be concerned.”