CAIRO — In April 2012, I attended a news conference at which the Muslim Brotherhood's powerful financier and strategist Khairat El-Shater announced both his candidacy in the presidential election and the "Renaissance Project," which he claimed would put Egypt among the world's richest countries within his first term as president. Weeks later, Shater was out of the 2012 presidential race and Mohammed Morsi became the Brotherhood's second pick, dubbed by Egyptians the "spare tire."
Morsi placed less emphasis on the Brotherhood's Renaissance Project, but during another news conference I attended at one of Cairo's poshest hotels in May 2012, he declared his "100-day plan." Flanked by his aides, bodyguards and political lackeys, Morsi declared that within his first hundred days in office, he would resolve Cairo's security, traffic, garbage, fuel and bread issues. I turned off my voice recorder, stopped taking notes and looked at the bearded liar as he shamelessly vowed to resolve the decades-old crises of a city of 20 million.
