BAD GUY WINS IN EGYPT – AT 10:46 A.M. ET:  The Muslim Brotherhood candidate, Mohamed Morsi, was declared the winner today in Egypt's presidential election, barely beating out his opponent, who had been prime minister under Hosni Mubarak.

We don't, of course, know who actually won.   Egypt uses an ancient and revered vote-counting system known, in translation from the Arabic, as the Chicago method.  There were huge crowds in Cairo, all of them pro-Brotherhood, waiting for the announcement, and the members of Egypt's election commission, or whatever it's called, wanted to remain alive to see the sunset today.

But that is the official result, and it's bad news...except possibly at the White House.  Secular spokespeople in Egypt this week complained bitterly to news media about what they charged was American interference on behalf of the Brotherhood.   I would not be shocked if that charge were true, given President Obama's obvious pro-Muslim proclivities.  He recent described President Erdogan of Turkey, a profound Islamist, as his favorite leader in the Mideast, snubbing Jordan's pro-American King Abdullah and Israel's obviously pro-American Netanyahu.  (Can you imagine what a second Obama term will be like in foreign policy?) 

So now we have the culmination of the "Arab spring," increasingly a joke.  The Muslim Brotherhood had pledged not to participate in electoral politics, and lied about it.  What else are they lying about?  The new president says he wants to end the peace treaty with Egypt, which would severely impact American interests in the region.  We give Egypt billions a year in aid.  Congress will have a say in that, and you look forward to responsible attempts to end that aid, fought by an Obama administration, if re-elected, that will favor its continuation.

Welcome to the real world.  I look forward to hearing some of the "sophisticates" in the foreign-policy establishment explain this one away.

June 24,  2012