How Obama "pushed" Mubarak

"Obama officials in Washington were working on his message to Mr. Mubarak: to announce that he would not run for re-election (he did that), and to promise that his son would not run for election (he did not do that)."  But Mubarak could not do that anyway.  It was unthinkable based on what happened that Mubarak could seem another term or that his son, who fled to London, could dream of ever succeeding his father.  This is like saying that Obama asked the captain of the Titanic to not commandeer a ship again.