Tyrants

I guess at this point we are waiting around to see if Ghaddafi can be brutal enough to survive.  Let's not forgot that Detestable 20th Century Dictators Nos. 2 and 3 - Mao and Stalin - died in their beds.  (I will always give No. 1 status to the half-eunuch who sought the Final Solution.)

But Ghaddifi has a pompous, unbending ridiculousness to him that has in the past proved fatal - I'm thinking, Mussolini, with whom G has some historical links.  And Ceausescu - and, coming out of his hidey hole - Saddam.  Those three, all dead at the hands of their people.

The liberalizing dictators, on the other hand, don't seem to be able to hand onto power but do hang on their scalps.  Marcos and the Shah.   Mubarak and the dude in Tunisia.

The elephant in the room - the blue whale in the room - is the royal family in Saudi Arabia.  They won't shut down the Internet, or use tear gas, or shoot rubber bullets, in order to stop protestors.  The Saudis will hang them.  It'll put this Administration in a really tough position, but BHO won't be dumb enough to side with the opposition there.  He won't.  He won't?