Another passing thought

Frank Wisner, who had served as Barack Obama's special envoy for Egypt, told reporters in Germany on Saturday that "President Mubarak remains utterly critical in the days ahead." According to Al Jazeera (see 8:07pm at this link), he said

We need to get a national consensus around the pre-conditions for the next step forward. The president must stay in office to steer those changes.

How's that? He must stay in power to "steer the changes" toward a "national consensus" on "the pre-conditions" for "the next step?" How many months, how many years, are there in a "steer changes to national consensus on pre-conditions for the next step?"

So just a thought: How many weasel words can be fit into one statement? (And I didn't even include that ridiculous modern cliché "forward.")