Obama Is Like Totally Prepared. Obviously.

We knew he’d be totally fantastic at handling foreign conflicts potentially involving the twin threats of radical Islam and foreign oil disruptions, but what we didn’t realize when half the country trusted Barack Obama to undertake foreign policy that he’d grab the potato chips and let the country in question just figure it out for themselves.

The regime appears to have adjusted itself to a daily outpouring of civil disobedience and dissent that would not have been tolerated three weeks ago; it now seems intent on playing for time and testing the endurance of this inchoate movement.

One of the great strengths of the protest movement has been the diversity of its ranks, but the regime is clearly trying to exploit the absence of a united organizational leadership by engaging in talks with various opposition elements, offering only minor concessions, but hoping to find enough takers to eventually isolate those in Tahrir Square who reject negotiations as long as Mubarak remains in power.

Let’s be honest here. I might not be a policy expert, but letting middle east conflicts resolve on their own seems a little like assuming Charlie Sheen will stop partying with hookers and cocaine just because he’s scheduled to spend the weekend locked in a Chuck E. Cheese with a bus full of Kindergartners. Just as we can safely assume those children are going to gain a comprehensive understanding of anatomy, we can also safely assume that what happens behind closed doors in Egypt is probably not going to be in our best interests. Our only saving grace in this instance is that the Muslim Brotherhood is as prone to tempter tantrums as Charlie Sheen himself. As Hot Air notes, it seems the longer they go without getting their way, the more likely they are to take their ball and go home.

Not that that’s really comforting. No. Because, even though we may have avoided one disaster, it’s pretty darn clear we’re not exactly prepared for another one. Even though things have settled down on the Western front, it remains that we could have gotten totally screwed had Egypt exploded, either literally or figuratively. Any disruption over there means the oil supply over here is affected. One analyst in Reuters basically told the news service that he was thanking Allah Egypt didn’t “descend into chaos” because otherwise Obama would have had to duck his way out of a second Jimmy Carter-era problem.

After all, it’s true we’re not prepared. Remember the Gulf Spill last summer? Well, it turns out, while Obama’s pretty much ignored that, too, since it happened, his administration hasn’t. Instead of encouraging domestic oil production that could help us avoid the gut-wrenching prospect of oil supply disruptions, the Obama Administration has taken the opportunity to block over a hundred Gulf drilling permits. His administration has created an 88% decline in deepwater permits over the historical average. Not only does that suck for oil companies, who also happen to be…you know…employers, but it sucks for America because, unless we figure out a way to drill, baby, drill, we’re pretty much reliant on whatever those divas in the middle east feel like doing.

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