barack obama goes to cairo, gives a speech and he inspires, perhaps he s the one who inspires a lot of the egyptians to get out into the streets eventually? this is the same guy accused of being feckless in the face of iranian protests in 2009. it s hard for any president, particularly a democrat, to flip instantly. i m sure the president s instincts are to go with the as operations of people seeking democracy and freedom. america s reliance on egypt as a military partner and diplomatic partner is very strong. the president has moved farther and faster than he might have. mubarak had the capacity psychologically to get-go? it s against the grain. this is a guy who sees himself as a great man, he s doing a favor, if you will, leading the country. if he doesn t go soon, it s a nightmare. every day he hangs on, the situation gets worse. topic two, the demonstrators, will more people come out, how long can they hold out and,
the administration is saying more than it said publicly yesterday. the words orderly transition, the message from secretary clinton is the right one. unfortunately it took them about a week to get there. and the result is that people on the streets didn t really feel the united states was on the side of democracy. they got to the right place but it took them so long to get there. remember, a week ago, they were saying mubarak s government is stable. so the key is, behind the scenes for the administration to come up with either an envoy or message to president mubarak that makes clear as long as he says the words i m leaving power, i m going to step down, he can probably get a few months out of this. remember, there s an election in september. right. it s not that hard to get us from here to there in a peaceful, orderly way. andrea mitchell is, of course, nbc news chief foreign affairs correspondent. andrea, you ve been working this story around the clock over the past week.
pro-american. when you say you re american, they smile. we had one soldier who i think had something to drink before we saw him, big smile, we were allowed to go through without having our paperwork. yes, he had a lot to drink, let s be honest. the other thing i would say, when we were on the streets trying to talk to shop keepers who were trying to protect their stores, we were told by the egyptians that we were with that they sid guess what, guys, if anyone asks you, you re british, because they have had some issues in part because of the perception that america supports mubarak himself. now, i did not experience that myself. but our egyptian, we call them fixers, were concerned that that would be a problem for us. it s kind of an interesting dichotomy. in terms of my personal experience, very pro-american and a lot of smiles on that front. that s interesting. chuck todd, could it be that the president s 2009 cairo speech, chuck, in the end, could not
let s set the scene here. president obama of course is urging a orderly transition to democracy in egypt. in an effort to ratchet up pressure on mubarak, obama spoke with the leaders of saudi arabia, turkey, israel and britain on the need for an egyptian government which is responsive to its people. and appearing on meet the press yesterday, secretary of state hillary clinton also said mubarak must live up to the promises of reform. is the only way that mubarak stays in power for now is if he calls immediately for free and fair elections and pledges that he will not run? david, these issues are up to the egyptian people, and they have to make these decisions. but our position is very clear. we have urged for 30 years that there be a vice president and finally a vice president was announced just a day or two ago. are you calling upon egypt to call for free and fair elections
word, that s when it s fraught. the muslim brotherhood around secular oppositionists who agree on their opposition to the current regime, everyone s agendas diverge at that point. every player involved including the military is in a precarious position as we move forward with this. no doubt. also barack obama, i talked to somebody who s worked the middle east for the past quarter century for the cia this weekend who said, obama s screwed. he used tougher language than that on the phone. but said he s got one of his closest allies in the middle east who is teetering. if he decides to run away from mubarak and mubarak survives, that s a nightmare. it sends a terrible message, not only to mubarak but our other allies helping us in the war against terror. striking how much the administration turned on a dime with very tough rhetoric, not calling for him to leave but clearly making their intentions plain. i think behind the scenes,