‘The way democracy is supposed to work’?

So ... where did the Obama administration stand on the popular uprising against Hosni Mubarak in Egypt this month?

Less than two weeks ago, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was assuring us Mubarak's administration — which this nation has propped up with tens of billions of "foreign aid" bribes in recent decades — was "stable."

Now he's fled to some remote "vacation spot," replaced by another military coup. Barack Obama tells us in his Friday speech, "This is how democracy is supposed to work."

Really? Admittedly America is not a democracy — we're supposed to be a republic, assuming Mr. Obama observes the distinction. But even democracies are supposed to feature open elections, aren't they?

Don't get me wrong: Mubarak was a corrupt dictator who habitually locked up anyone who dared to campaign against him. His "compromise" proposal was to agree to share power with this character Omar Suleiman, the CIA's torturer-designate in the region. Good riddance.

But the description above would conservatively describe the dictators in charge of at least of a third of the world's nations. The problem with "democracy" in an Islamic nation with no tradition of religious tolerance is that the majority could well decide to OK, not a modern and tolerant regime, but a bunch of radical mullahs intent on taking away women's rights, murdering every Jew in Israel, and generally re-constructing some Eighth Century caliphate.

I don't know that the generals currently in charge in Cairo are devotees of Tom Jefferson and Patrick Henry, let alone Friedrich Hayek and Ludwig von Mises. I'm pretty sure the "Muslim Brotherhood" ain't.

Or do you prefer Mohamed ElBaradei, who was instrumental in helping cover up Iran's nuclear weapons program for years?

Speaking of which, why no similar support for Iran's failed "Green Revolution" a year ago, during which the Obama White House sat curiously silent?

Egypt has a population of 83 million, compared to America's 313 million. A few thousand Egyptians gather in the town square for 18 days, demanding change, their dictator agrees to leave town, and Mr. Obama tells us that's "the way democracy is supposed to work"?

If 40,000 Americans camped out by the Lincoln Memorial for the next three weeks, demanding "change," Mr. Obama would agree to resign and let the Pentagon choose his successor? Really? That's "the way democracy is supposed to work"?

Yes, we all know Mubarak's latest "re-election" was a loathsome fraud. But the White House and Foggy Bottom didn't exactly cut off support at that point, did they?

For that matter, what's Mr. Obama's position on Herbert Hoover's handling of the 17,000 "Bonus Marchers" who set up a tent city in Washington in the spring and summer of 1932?

Hoover sent in the cavalry, under Douglas MacArthur and backed by six tanks, to drive the marchers out.