The President’s brief comments from the State Dining Room of the White House suggest that he doesn’t necessarily see the imminent end to Mubarak’s reign — or consider it anything close to a slam dunk that whatever might emerge post-Mubarak will be more democratic. If this were a clear choice between an authoritarian regime and a western-style democracy, it’d be a no-brainer. But it’s not. It’s a problem to be managed, with the sober understanding that the real world offers potential outcomes that are worse than Mubarak.

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David Kurtz

David Kurtz is Managing Editor and Washington Bureau Chief of Talking Points Memo where he oversees the news operations of TPM and its sister sites.