The last time I was here I was describing why I found it so hard to write about Egypt. Hosni Mubarak had yet to fall. Libya had yet to rise up, and NATO had yet to step in. Syria appeared calm. Also, this site looked just a little different. Osama bin Laden, the reason we ended up in Afghanistan and the reason I wrote so much about the Afpak question, was still alive. The extent of Pakistan's duplicity was still hard to judge. The economy also appeared to be gaining steam, New York still hadn't allowed gay marraige, Michelle Bachmann appeared unlikely to enter the 2012 race, no one knew who the heck Herman Cain was, and I think few imagined that Jon Huntsman would quit his post at Beijing to run against his boss. Oh, and Rick Scott is Florida is turning out to be just as much of a disaster as I had imagined; note to voters, consider how many times a candidate pled the 5th amendment in their life before voting for them.
How things change in five months...
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