So now we can all sit around and guess which city he’ll choose to do it in.
The consensus, after an entire day of reporting, is Cairo.
Why Cairo? It’s a matter of elimination. I called Ziad Asali, the president of the American Task Force on Palestine, to gauge his thoughts. “Damascus would be cool, except it would look as if he was rewarding the Syrians and it’s too soon for that,” Mr. Asali said…
My colleague, David Sanger, heard me talking about it and came over to my desk. “I think he’s going to pick Jakarta,” he said. “It would be a big homecoming-type trip.”
But Jakarta’s too easy. Mr. Asali thought so too: “Jakarta? People would yawn about that.” Sure, Indonesia is the world’s most populous Muslim-majority country — some 177 million Muslims live there — but the very fact that Mr. Obama once lived and went to school there would make choosing it seem like cheating…
Tehran? Too soon for that. Amman? Been there, done that. Islamabad? Too dangerous. Ankara? Too safe. Plus the Turks aren’t going to be too crazy about being used for outreach to the Muslim world when they’re trying to join the European Union.
Me, I think he should scrap the idea altogether. Aside from being as pointless as his Germany speech, there isn’t a place that’s safe yet exciting enough for The One’s musings. On second thought, I’d like to see him go to Damascus just so we could all make road to Damascus jokes.
And am I the only one who thinks Obama going to a Muslim city to give a big speech (about what exactly?) is tempting fate (and terrorists) a bit too much?
