Egypt’s presidential campaign has formally started, and political talk shows have become the new frontier for candidates Abdel Fattah al-Sisi and Hamdeen Sabahi to flex their muscles and charm the public. Although it's hard to assess the real impact of these talk show interviews on viewers, they have clearly highlighted crucial aspects of the candidates’ manifestoes, personalities and styles. Contrary to earlier assumptions, the performance of both candidates in TV interviews has changed the perceptions of some and raised alarm bells for others. Overall, they have increased the prospect of a competitive election. Many who considered Sabahi’s candidacy a meaningless exercise are now asking themselves whether he can in fact gain enough support. However, a question mark hangs over the percentage of votes Sabahi can win.   

In Egypt’s fluid and occasionally stormy political scene, the benchmark for assessing the potential performance of presidential candidates has drifted dramatically since the 2012 election scene, and even from January’s constitutional referendum. Ultimately, the TV interviews have exposed a few myths and provided the Egyptian public with two clear choices:

First, there is an ex-military chief, with a clearly autocratic tendency, who is banging the drum for the salvation of the state, and the idea that Egypt does not have the luxury of flirting with chaos. Sisi has stressed that the practice of freedoms must be balanced with national security and that the media should focus on rallying the public behind "the strategic goal" of "preserving the Egyptian state."

Sisi summed up his sentiments on this subject during a meeting with 20 editors of Egypt’s main newspapers when he said, "I fear that while we are practicing (democracy), we won't find a nation.” It's hard not to ignore Sisi’s endless hints that suggest a deep desire for social “recalibration,” as part of his proclaimed desire to save the state. It's also hard to ignore his relative unease with a future opposition, expressed so adroitly with his use of the word “tolerate” instead of “accept.”