What does John McCain mean in this quote about Mubarak?

[Holy Cow!]

It's also time for John McCain to go away forever.

[magick]

Gotta give him the benefit of the doubt here . He may mean that Moobarak had his chance over and over to change his ways ..

[AE Newman]

Cronies always stand up for their old boy network peers, but in this case, McCain is regretting that he will have to face the reality of his 30 years of support for Mubarak, and then have to ultimately learn to deal with the younger generation.

Essentially, McCain wants to live forever and regrets getting old. It makes him feel wistful, and hints at his own impending exit from the Senate.

[☼Solar☼]

Mubarak's time has come and gone. He has lost the respect of the people he governs. Senator McCain, simply stated what most people around the world think. It was a polite phase to pass on a hint.

[Big Yoda]

Regrettable as in "Hasni, you screwed your people for the last time, now beat it". "Have a nice day".

[suthrnlytsâ„¢]

Because the chance of them remaining as one of our allies in the future, is probably zero. Everyone knows that Mubarak is a tyrant and I'm betting that his words had everything to do with the effects this will have on our future ties with that country, and not the tyrant that has been in charge.

I've met many Egyptians in this country myself (nice folks). They attend helicopter flight training here and are trained by our military. I'm guessing that will end now.

Btw:
We provide Egypt with upwards of $2 billion a year in foreign aid under the provisos of the Camp David Accords orchestrated by Carter (A DEMOCRAT). The Egyptian military, in particular, receives $1.3 billion of this money.

[Zeus]

mccain is another evil american that supports dictators that starve their own people

[Love.Canada]

he wasn't such a bad guy as tyrants go...

[WinonaGal]

Regrettably doesn't mean that at all here. It means that there is regrettable turmoil, killings, violence and agony that the people have undergone. Don't make McCain out to be the bad guy here.
The bad guy is Mubarak.

[Jollyacoustics684]

Mubarak while a dictator has done a lot good for the Egyptian people. Additionally Egypt has been a bulwark against Islamists and led the movement toward peace with Israel. Egypt also put lots of pressure onto the regime in Karthoum to accept the recent peace agreement.

So, yes, some of its regrettable. But the authoritarian regime must fall. That is the life of a single person rule. Even if most of the time he is doing good for Egypt.