Shep Smith Admits Impossibility in Predicting What's Next For Egypt; Takes Fashion Advice From Imus?

Imus has so much respect for Fox News Anchor Shepard Smith that he was THREE MINUTES early for today’s interview, rather than being seven minutes late, as he is for most guests.
 
But while Smith did not have to wait to chat with Imus, waiting is just about all anybody can do right now in Egypt and around the world, as it remains to be seen how President Hosni Mubarak will proceed following a speech yesterday in which he announced he was going nowhere fast.
 
“Everyone in the world was convinced he was leaving,” Smith said. “And then when he didn’t, it took us all a little while to figure out how to react to that.”
 
That so many sources on all different levels could be so wrong about Mubarak’s intentions baffled Smith, as it did Leon Panetta, head of the CIA, and just about everybody else in the Obama administration. Then again, the now 18-day old uprising in Egypt demanding Mubarak’s exit was a surprise in and of itself.
 
“This thing seemed really organic,” Smith said of the demonstrations, which began shortly after Tunisians successfully banded together to oust their own now-former dictatorial President. The only opposition political group of record in Egypt, the Muslim Brotherhood, was “late to this party,” in Smith’s view, but he doesn’t think that will prevent them from taking advantage of it.
 
“They’re the only organized bunch,” he said, pointing out that organizing as they have in Egypt is, in fact, illegal. “Imagine never in your life being able to stand on a street corner and talk about politics. That’s how most of these young people are. To think this is going to be a perfect process now is ridiculous. It’s going to be difficult.”
 
So will discerning how exactly anything changes in Egypt by Mubarak announcing yesterday he transferred powers to Vice President Omar Suleiman, the former Director of Intelligence in Egypt who has often been referred to as the “torturer-in-chief,” noted Smith.
 
“If you look at the Constitution, it appears, at least, as if he can take back whatever powers he just gave away,” Smith said of Mubarak. “I don’t think it really matters to anybody in Egypt. They seem to not want either of them.”
 
protesters in EgyptIt’s a sentiment that will likely be expressed today by upwards of a million people, as they move their protests from Tahrir Square to the Presidential Palace, where they will be met, no doubt, by the Egyptian military. “Either the army’s going to side with the people, it seems to me, or they’re going to side with [Mubarak],” Smith observed, though he later added, “I think every time we talk about it, we’re speaking without a lot of facts.”
 
Most analysts watching this situation unfold, including those in Egypt, have been surprised to see the demonstrations carry on for as long as they have. It has left the United States in a tenuous position, one fraught with wrong choices at every turn.
 
“If you end up on the wrong side of history, then what do you do?” Smith said. “The fact is, we’ve been supporting a dictatorial regime for a long time, for the greater good, I suppose. But the enemy of your enemy is not always your friend.”
 
With a “day of rage” scheduled to take place in nearby Bahrain on Monday, Smith sighed and confessed, “We’re in fully unknown territory. This is not something I had studied for.”
 
He could try the Imus approach: wait and see which side comes out ahead, and throw your support that way.  This could work well, since it appears Smith has already taken some of Imus’s other advice to heart.
 
“I’m glad to see you cut back on those pinstriped suits that made you look like a refuge from ‘Guys and Dolls,’” Imus said, moments after graciously thanking Smith for stopping by the studio (for what will probably be the last time, ever).
 
-Julie Kanfer