 The last two months have been like the most tumultuous political transition in Egypt. Starting in May there were 13 presidential candidates vying for the top seat. Then it was down to two, neither of whom were very popular. This was about two weeks ago and the final results of the election were very delayed. So no one was sure if the old regime guy Shafiq or the Muslim Brotherhood candidate Morsi would be taking the helm of the country. And it was really a divisive vote because no one was a huge fan of either, but it was sort of a, well I like this guy more than the other guy, so this is who I'm going to vote for. Now it's my understanding the U.S. actually put some pressure on the ruling military council who was going to support Shafiq, the old guard candidate. But in the end Morsi received 52%. He now has a very limited mandate, but he does have a mandate to sort of hopefully be a uniting force in this new Egypt. But amid all of this presidential transition the military has really asserted control. So they've disbanded the parliament, which was democratically elected last November. They have issued new constitutional decrees, they've ended martial law, they restarted martial law, a court today said no to martial law. It's kind of a big mix up and it's hard to keep straight even for people living in Cairo. There are fears in Washington and other quarters of governance and amid the military council in Egypt about a Muslim Brotherhood presidency. But I think these are totally overblown. This is not an ideological organization, this is a flexible, pragmatic group and everyone knows that once a party is elected they have to sort of adapt and deal with their constituencies. So I heard on CBS radio the other day they're saying, oh, you know, presidential elect Morsi thinks Jews or Israelis are vampires. And I mean this is just preposterous kind of fear mongering. I think we can expect the peace treaty with Israel to remain basically to the T. It's never been violated in the past three decades. It's not going to be. It's basically going to be a status quo foreign policy. This isn't Saudi Arabia. There's not going to be Sharia law imposed. Sure, there's going to be changes. And I'm not trying to say the Muslim Brotherhood is a, you know, cute as a kitten, perfect organization. But they're savvy political actors. They have an incredible political machine at work that got Morsi elected. And I think they want to prove to the people that they can govern. Now the issue, though, is will the military let them govern? The Islamist, the Muslim Brotherhood-dominated parliament has been dissolved. So there's going to be new elections. There's going to be new power-broking. And it's going to just get more interesting. This transition will never end. The mood in Egypt and in Cairo in particular where I'm based has been pretty tense. It's exciting, though. Everyone's talking about politics. You walk down the street. Everyone's, you know, arguing why Shafiq or Morsi should have been president. What's the deal with the constitution? What's happening with the parliament? I mean, this is New Egypt. When I was there five years ago, people weren't having these kind of open political debates in the street. But that said, things are quite polarized. I think among my cohort, a lot of the friends I've made are the revolutionary youth that were really in the square that started the revolution, that tweeted and covered the revolution for all the major global outlets. And they're disappointed. And sort of the feeling was, do we have to cheer for Morsi now? Do we have to support him? I mean, it was a reluctant thing. But most people wanted to be out with the remnants of the Mubarak regime. And so they're happy to, you know, muted happiness in this regard. But there's a real sense that these revolutionary youth, that the secular, liberal, progressive folks need to be engaged in the political process. Because I don't know if they'll be able to wait four years or that there is word from the military that this presidential term will be shortened. And no one's exactly clear how that will work. But there's going to have to be US engagement with the people who started the revolution and sort of ongoing civil society engagement. Or else there are real fears of more upheaval, more uprising. Whether the Muslim Brotherhood can mobilize this huge grassroots movement that they have into good governance, into rule of law, into a new chapter of Egyptian politics is really yet to be seen because of this sort of strong iron fist of the military that's really perhaps overplaying its hand and getting involved in the legislative process, in the constitutional process, in the courts. Basically every aspect of politics, the economy, et cetera, is being sort of pushed around by the military. So it's unclear how much room for maneuver the Brotherhood will have in the next period.