New Prime Minister Essam Sharaf said all the right things as he addressed thousands in Tahrir Square today. I like the idea he chose to speak everyday Egyptian. From the New York Times:

If Mr. Sharaf meant to strike a different note Friday, he did. He traveled with a few military police in red berets and a few more men in dark sunglasses, their numbers paling before the phalanxes of security that usually accompany Egyptian officials. In his remarks, there was none of the stentorian paternalism of Mr. Mubarak, who addressed Egyptians as his sons and daughters in his last speech. “If you would permit me,” Mr. Sharaf repeatedly asked the crowd. Dispensing with customary formal Arabic, he spoke in Egyptian slang, standing before them in a gray jacket and white shirt, with no tie.

In a way, the address marked a striking legacy of the uprising: the reimagining of power that once sought prestige though its very distance from those without it.

My link is not to the Times news story, however. It's to an Al Jazeera "Inside Story" interview, mostly with a very articulate Tahrir Square activist, who is very skeptical of the army's attempts to get Egypt "back to normal."