With Egypt soon to head into the final round of its first presidential elections, deposed dictator Hosni Mubarak looks to be on his last legs. Though a court recently sentenced him to life in prison, Mubarak looks not to have much life left in him, and is reportedly slipping in and out of consciousness. His sentence is largely irrelevant to Egypt's political future, but it reflects growing discontent inside the country.

To many Egyptians' dismay, the prosecution never explicitly charged Mubarak for the deaths of over 800 civilians during the revolution. As a result, the court's ruling is the worst of all possible worlds: It does little to convince ordinary Egyptians that officials of the old regime will face justice for their crimes, and little to allay the generals' fear of an outcome like the Iranian revolution of 1979, in which they would all end up swinging from the gallows.

This is not a formula for a successful democratic transition.