After a fall of a regime, even rarer qualities are demanded to build a new government that can command loyalty and respect, instill order and solve problems.
Libya's National Transitional Council (NTC) is discovering this the hard way. It will need some fresh political inspiration if it is to keep alive the hope of a united and peaceful country.
Big-picture advantages such as international goodwill and the speedy resumption of oil exports have not saved the NTC from a discouraging range of domestic problems.
Recent protests, some of them violent, reveal the public's revulsion against the old regim.