It is quite remarkable for people to be talking about the prospect for a democratic transition at this moment. A population that was convinced just two months ago that sharks in the Red Sea were implanted by the Israeli Intelligence Services is hardly at a stage of creating a liberal democracy in Egypt...Until someone actually starts addressing the real issues and stop the chatterbox of clichés on democracy, things will not get better at all.
The real issue is the one the author himself never discusses, unfortunately. The elephant in the living room is Islam. It is completely incompatible with democracy or in fact with any "rival" state, because it is itself a brutal, authoritarian political system and will not share power. The reason the ME has so many authoritarian governments (dictatorships or not) is that this is the only way to repress Islam and keep it from taking over.
I'm sure some of the more starry-eyed protesters probably thought they could have a secular democracy if they just wished hard enough, but Islam will not permit that and I think they have just opened the door to the worst and most oppressive form of government of all.
As brutal and evil that Saddam Hussein was, he did know how to keep his population under control and he understood the nature of Islam and how to keep IT contained.
Iraq is by far, not done yet! The Islamofascists are patient and they now have Mooky Al Sadre back in the country, slowly getting the Iranian Shiite factions a strong foothold. And the weaknesses of Dumbocracy is a perfect set up for Islam to take over.