I think they're just saying what they figure will make the best general impression on the Egyptian public, the world public, and the American public, pdq. And that's all.

How could any general public not sympathize with such a popular uprising against a tyrant like Mubarak? So the Obama administration is saying what it thinks will make the best momentary impression on people. It's just PR, for gosh sakes!

Behind the scenes, the administration will be worried about the usual stuff, such as:

1. How do we keep the Egyptian government cooperative with our regional policies?

2. How do we keep them obedient to our wishes?

3. How do we ensure that nothing much really changes, except outward appearances?

4. How do we continue securing Israel's safety in regards to Egypt?

What Obama is saying publicly, pdq, is public relations, nothing else, in my opinion.

I hardly know of ANY society that has truly "open and fair" elections, pdq. I'll tell you why. The large political parties are controlled by the very rich. They are funded by the very rich. So are the mass media. The elections that we see do NOT represent the ordinary public, they represent elite competitive power groups among the very rich, and they serve the interests of the very rich. This is true in almost every society in the world today, and there is nothing that ordinary people can do about it other than doing what the Egyptian people just did, and taking their protest agaisnt the system to the streets...because the political parties have all been bought out by their rich backers! The candidates we vote for are the candidates they groomed and chose to publicize. It's a fixed game. No matter WHICH party wins. It is NOT a fair and open election...it just goes through the outward motions, that's all.

This is just as true in Canada as it is in the USA or the UK. The whole thing at election time is a charade. You can't have fair and honest elections when the parties have all been bought out by rich oligarchies. The system is corrupted from the top down.

If the Egyptians get the "fair and open" elections you are hoping they'll get, those will probably turn out to be a similar charade.