When President Barack Obama flew to Cairo two years ago to deliver a speech
designed to start an American conversation with the Muslim world, it seemed
an almost revolutionary act — and the enthusiasm of his reception was in
sharp contrast with the Arab world’s widespread hostility towards President
George W. Bush. But as Egypt makes revolutionary changes of its own, the
prevailing sentiment remains that Obama has been a bitter disappointment.
“We were all so hopeful,” says Islam Bakr, 52, a security guard in Cairo,
remembering how everyone sat glued to the televised broadcast of Obama’s
June 2009 speech at the American University of Cairo. Now, he says, “Obama
is no better than George Bush.”
On Thursday Obama plans to try again, hoping through a major Washington
speech on the Middle East to align the U.S. with the democracy protests
sweeping the Arab world. White House spokesman Jay Carney told reporters on
Tuesday that the region’s revolutionary wave “is an opportunity not to be
missed, in the president’s view.” Obama believes, Carney said, that “the
opportunity is there to help shape a better future for the region and for
the world.”
