by Patrick Appel
Steven Cook, who is in Cairo, sounds hopeful:
It’s not clear at all whether they believe them or not, but the Egyptian elite have been telling themselves lies and half truths for years. Today may have been the day when those lies and half truths caught up with them. Clearly, the many thousands of people in Tahrir Square today/tonight don’t take the regime’s claims about reform seriously. The press has focused on economic grievancesperhaps taking their cues from government spokesmenbut the only demands I heard tonight were political. The young men and (some) women in Tahrir want freedom and liberation from Hosni Mubarak, his family, and the National Democratic Party.
As an aside, no matter how this thing turns out, it seems far less likely that Gamal Mubarak will succeed his father.