 Former UN nuclear chief Mohamed ElBaradei is advocating democratic reforms that could allow him to run in the 2011 presidential election and break Hosni Mubarak's three-decade rule. But voters may not care enough to risk arrest and beatings.
| To tell the truth, I wouldn't risk arrest and beatings for a UN organization man like Dr. ElBaradei, either. He's been gone from Egypt for so long he knows neither the issues nor the players, and his skills are not the ones necessary for running a country -- any country, not just a third world purgatory-hole like Egypt. Dr. ElBaradei is thinking of the presidency as a little, part-time retirement job, the kind where he goes to a couple of meetings several times a week, charms some interesting foreign dignitaries, and then has a wonderful dinner parties. That might do for Togo, but Egypt is a full-time job for a strong man with a nasty streak. |
| Only disagreement I have in that analysis is how ElBaradei views the job: yes, it's for retirement, but with an emphasis on accumulating a sufficient stash to live an opulent retirement. |
|