I’m not under any illusion that this represents the death of American exceptionalism but let’s take note of Obama’s clear-eyed understanding of America’s role in the world and the real limits of American power as he just stated it in his press conference:
What we didn’t do was pretend that we could dictate the outcome in Egypt — because we can’t. So we were very mindful that it was important for this to remain an Egyptian event, that the United States did not become the issue …
That’s no small break with American foreign policy tendencies going back to, well, close to forever. It’s also an explicit rejection of what have been considered immutable domestic political realities that force Presidents to appeal to Americans’ distorted self-image. Huzzah!
