ironic story about egypt s plummeting economy. and finally, the two top presidential candidates in egypt, two former office mates now rivals. let me first give you some of my own thoughts, having spent some time in cairo and actually listened to president obama s speech from here in tahrir square. the president s speech was remarkably comprehensive. it described the events that we now call the arab spring, explain their causes and consequences. he placed the united states squarely behind the democratic wave everywhere. though he didn t specifically mention one country. saudi arabia. the place where america s interests and values most obviously clash. i don t blame him. street protests in saudi arabia might warm our hearts, but they could easily lead to $250 a barrel oil and a global recession. that s a tough one. obama outlined specific policies to help the arab revolutions get consolidated. all good stuff. and he also talked about the need for a resolution of the israeli
interests and values squarely aligned with this arab revolution. sean: you advise people and they take your advice and you tell everybody how wonderful your advice was. what happened to that notion called full disclosure? don t you think this reporter owed it to his audience the president called me for my advice on this matter which i just said such a great job on? this is the advice i gave. here s an interesting thing when the story broke last week, last wednesday he was very proud of the fact that he had given this advice. when people started talking about it over the weekend and the criticism came. he came out this week and said at no time did he give the president advice on any specific policy. why did barack obama then call him? was he trying to dial american idol and call the wrong number?
interests and values squarely aligned with this arab revolution. sean: you advise people and they take your advice and you tell everybody how wonderful your advice was. what happened to that notion called full disclosure? don t you think this reporter owed it to his audience the president called me for my advice on this matter which i just said such a great job on? this is the advice i gave. here s an interesting thing when the story broke last week, last wednesday he was very proud of the fact that he had given this advice. when people started talking about it over the weekend and the criticism came. he came out this week and said at no time did he give the president advice on any specific policy. why did barack obama then call him? was he trying to dial american idol and call the wrong number? the only reason he called was
educator in chief that came out today. he provided a kind of world view, almost a historical interpretation of the causes and consequences of the arab spring. he began in the beginning with tunisia and moved forward. he tried to present a way in which he saw america s interests and values as squarely aligned with this arab revolution. he touched on the places that we don t like, the regimes we don t like that are having trouble dealing with people. tehran, damascus. he also talked about bahrain an yemen. but you are right, of course, he didn t talk about the 800-pound gorilla that is saudi arabia. but he also then went on to talk about ways to consolidate these revolutions, talking about the arab-israeli peace process. he s tougher on syria than he has been. he was more explicit in his support for two states, israel and palestine on 1967 borders, plus mutually agreeable land swaps. so very comprehensive. i have a feeling though that while it will be well received in the regio
that would help take a lot of wind out of the salfof the sail. many of it has been focused on internal problems, corruption, against mubarak and his family. now they are starting to make head way on this, a lot of the people involved in those revolutions want to channel their energy to address what they see as an even bigger injustice, and that according to arab view is israel s treatment of the palestinians. the best way to take the wind out of those sails is to start a peace process, to start it directly with the palestinians, because there are a lot of people not just in the public opinion who would like the arab revolution to turn on israel. think of hamas, think about the syrian government that wants to deflect attention from it, al qaeda, the brotherhood, iran. the list could go on and on. you have this terrific analysis piece of what s happening in this issue and what it means on msnbc.com world