Revolution may be the art of the impossible, but politics is the art of the possible. Many of Egypt's revolutionaries are disappointed with the country's new cabinet. Muslim Brothers make disparaging comparisons between “their” prime minister, Hesham Kandil, barely 50, and Hazem el-Beblawi, the newly appointed premier, who is 77 years old. The Brothers, trying to find allies among Egypt's revolutionary youth, note how the “coup” is resurrecting figures from the Mubarak era and style of government, but even that audience turns a deaf ear to their grumbling.

The revolutionaries, meanwhile, had wanted to see Mohamed ElBaradei as prime minister, and they criticize the appointment of Kamal al-Ganzouri, former prime minister under President Hosni Mubarak as well as the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces, as top aide to the interim president. They are shocked to see as minister of local development one Adel Labib, former inspector at the State Security Police, the old secret service apparatus. The country's youth look with suspicion upon the new finance minister, Ahmed Galal, former head of the Egyptian Center for Economic Studies and member of Gamal Mubarak’s neo-liberal economic team. In addition, the Salafist Al Nour Party has angered them with its earlier objection to proposals to appoint ElBaradei as prime minister and its current complaints that too many government members belong to the secular National Salvation Front. The revolutionaries may not like many of the things they see, but they will close one eye, at least for now, and focus on other priorities.

Al Nour described the new cabinet as “repeating mistakes of the previous [Muslim Brotherhood] government.” It was understood that the new government would be primarily comprised of technocrats, rather than politicians. Egypt the Strong, the party headed by Abdel Monem Aboul Futouh, a former Brotherhood leader who placed fourth in the 2012 presidential race, criticized the inclusion of foloul, Mubarak era officials, and argued that it would lead to more division and failure.

Perhaps it is a promising sign that the revolutionaries, secularists, Salafists and Muslim Brothers are all somewhat dissatisfied. Governing, after all, is the art of compromise, and the new cabinet is exactly that. For the first time in Egypt’s recent history, a cabinet has been formed to speak to the broadest spectrum of the country's political forces, even including Islamists reluctant to participate in the political process. The intent was that each party be able to identify someone in the cabinet to whom its members could relate to or think of as being on their side. For example, Vice President ElBaradei and Minister of Higher Education Hossam Eissa belong to the revolutionary camp. The selection of Ganzouri and Labib will please the foloul. Minister of Labor Kamal Eita was one of the leaders of the independent unions’ movement.