I thought I might add my two cents. I have not followed this closely, so these are general observations, based on general understandings.
Mubarak has to be understood in the context of the “our son of a bitch” aspect of American foreign policy. Egypt cannot stop being a democracy, since it has never BEEN a democracy. Nowhere in the Arab world, outside of Iraq, do ordinary Arabs have civil rights. Everywhere you have secret police, who can make people disappear, and do awful, unspeakable things to them.
And we made the decision some 35 years ago to, in effect, pay Egypt off as a condition of signing a peace treaty with Israel. That was Jimmy Carter, for those of you who are historically illiterate. Sadat paid with his life, but we have kept in people loyal to that basic agenda since then.
It has seemed for some time, though, that given the amount of money we give them annually, that we should be in a position to influence political liberalization. The fear in that region, of course, is always that in an open election the Muslim radicals will win. That means, of course, the end of open elections. It’s a one-off deal, then you get Iran, where the leaders decide who gets elected.
What the Muslim world as a whole lacks is a genuinely Liberal impulse, one which neither supports autocratic Sharia, nor the rule of the strongman. Given this gap, this lack, it is hard to find the people to back who will actually work to help anyone outside their small clique. Always with small-minded people it is win/lose, zero sum games. They don’t ask “What is good for Egypt as a whole?”, but rather “how can I take over Mubarak’s corrupt regime, so that the benefits of corruption will flow to me and mine?” It’s not corruption, per se, they care about.
Obviously, Mubarak is the target now, but whoever takes over–if someone takes over–can be counted on to be just as bad.
Democracy depends on decent people capable of looking at the big picture. For any people that is not decent, and not capable of wisdom, it is not viable. Such people get the governments they deserve, even if they are not the ones they want.