Ghannouchi: Man of the Hour

Long War: Tunisian Prime Minister Ghannouchi is cobbling together one more cabinet after sacking another handful of old guard ministers. He will ask the country's largest trade union for its blessing on the new cabinet and if he gets it he will try to seat a caretaker government. If all that happens the Army should be able to clear the streets of protesters and the crisis will move from Tunisia to Egypt.
America is close to demanding a basket of democratic reforms in Egypt. Probably America will put the hammer down and demand reform. If those reforms come through and Mubarak says his son can't run for office then the crisis moves from the halls of Egyptian power to the Egyptian street. Protests will probably break up on the street if the US keeps all the balls juggling at the same time: all the flare-ups in the Mideast related to the Jasmine Revolution are kept under control.
Algeria and Yemen have Jasmine street protests going on as I write. Unlike Tunisia, both these countries are overrun with Al-Qaeda. So four balls are being juggled right now and not one of them can slip. The key to preventing this juggling act from falling apart is to keep PM Ghannouchi in charge of Tunisia for 6 months until a new government is elected. Here's why: the election that he is overseeing makes jihadist and communist parties ineligible for office, it guarantees a moderate government. As Tunisia goes so goes the entire Arab world.
Obama needs to focus on geopolitics right now and get all of this done. The Republicans are getting ready to chew his vision of socialist America into ribbons. He needs to man up and let that carnage happen, just turn his back on the mayhem, cluck regretfully, maybe shed a tear, roll up his sleeves and get to work on the Mideast.