"Will Obama lose Saudi Arabia?"

"...Were the protests that began in Tunisia and have now spread to Yemen and Egypt to spread to Saudi Arabia, President Obama would be confronted with a historic decision on a par with the one Jimmy Carter faced in the second half of what ended up to be his one-term presidency. With the Shah of Iran – a long-time and faithful U.S. ally falling to street protests in 1979 – Mr. Carter chose not to intervene. The U.S. has been living with the consequences of that decision ever since. Whether Mr. Obama would make a similar decision in 2011 is a question that no doubt is being cogitated right now at the highest levels of his Administration. ..."