IN FAIRNESS TO THE PRESIDENT...:

Obama Will Be Judged by Egypt Results (E.J. Dionne, 3/03/11, RCP)

[P]resident Obama has restored foreign policy realism to the White House, giving a liberal gloss to what had traditionally been a conservative disposition. [...]

[N]ow, many in the neoconservative movement of which Kirkpatrick was a proud member come close to the view Kirkpatrick criticized -- that "it is possible to democratize governments, anytime, anywhere, under any circumstances" -- and have long been urging Obama to distance the U.S. from Mubarak's regime.

Robert Kagan, one of the leading neoconservative foreign voices, has been in the forefront of those arguing that the United States needed to be more prepared for a democratic rebellion in Egypt, and he was among the specialists brought to the White House this week for a discussion of next steps on Egypt.

In an NPR interview on Wednesday, Kagan offered the classic view of human rights advocates: that the U.S. should avoid a repeat of its excessively long-lived loyalty to the shah, which had the effect of "alienating the Iranian people for decades." Kagan also warned against the "illusory search for stability."

There is a great irony here for those liberals who passionately took issue with the neoconservative crusade to impose democracy by force but nonetheless share the view that American foreign policy should be more animated by democratic values.

And note that conservatives who take the old realist view -- Rep. Thaddeus McCotter, R-Mich., for example, declared that the "Egyptian demonstrations are the reprise of Iran's 1979 radical revolution" and called on the U.S. to "stand with her ally Egypt to preserve an imperfect government capable of reform" -- now seem isolated.

The resulting split on the conservative side has been helpful to Obama and he has won support for his cautious dealings with Mubarak from Republican congressional leaders.

If there was ever any doubt, it is now clear that Obama is more a realist than a human rights crusader, even if he has tried to square this circle in recent days by repeatedly invoking "universal" rights and values.

...it's not as if he's given any thought to his policy, it's just a reaction against W.

And, in fairness to Ms Kirkpatrick, there aren't really any totalitarians anymore, so there's nothing for the authoritarians to be a bulwark against. The Long War is over. We won. Time for our friends to conform to our requirements.

Posted by Orrin Judd at February 3, 2011 7:00 AM