Joe "Naam" Biden

In Egypt, President Hosni Mubarak stands for reelection every six years (after all, as VP Joe Biden says, he's not a dictator). The campaign posters usually have Mubarak's ugly face and the word Naam - "Yes", in Arabic. Until this decade, one couldn't vote for an opposition candidate; just "Yes" or "No" on Mubarak. In 1999, Mubarak's press reported that 94% voted Naam.

Joe Biden is a Naam guy (hat tip to Drudge). He can't think of any reason to label Mubarak a dictator; and doesn't particularly think that Hosni's 29 years in power are too many. After all, Biden was in the Senate for 36 years, and the sextennials just flew by. Mubarak is paid handsomely to advance the U.S. agenda in the Middle East, and Joe thinks of him as an "ally of ours" and "very responsible". Like Biden, Mubarak has been grooming his son to succeed him. These two guys go way back, and understand each other quite well, apparently.

Here's what's worse: Biden was picked to be Vice President on the strength of his foreign policy credentials. He's the wise old head, the adept diplomat, on the Obama-Biden ticket. And he should know better: Biden was in the Senate as the U.S. supported the Persian Shah right down to his defeat. He was on the Foreign Policy committee during the Cold War, supporting brutal South American dictators for geopolitical purposes. Most of America learned a lesson from that: it's not worth it in the long run. The dictator always falls, and the victims know who propped him up for so long.

Biden hasn't learned that lesson, and he's leading the U.S. (at least with his mouth) squarely onto the side of the mukhabarat goons, police brutality, control of the press and communications, and the Mubarak family dynasty. On the other side is the best chance for secular, non-Islamist regime change in decades.

Biden wants the world to know that the US is firmly in support of the status quo in Egypt. Naam Mubarak! That, my friends, is not change we can believe in.