""Unlike his father, Hussein, who liked to go on television if not
the street to empathize with his people at the first sign of crisis, King
Abdullah disappears from public view for weeks at a time when trouble erupts. He
is hampered by his English-accented Arabic, and in recent months it has
sometimes seemed that his population has to watch American television shows like
Jon Stewart's The Daily Show to see him. Such aloofness might work for the
oil-rich monarchs of the Gulf, who have the largesse to placate their subjects,
but Jordan’s resource-poor king is more vulnerable.""