“We’re struggling to figure all this out,” said a top official who was among the many White House advisers who spent the weekend calibrating the public and private diplomacy…

“It’s just a very tough line to straddle,” a senior administration official said. “If [Mubarak] guts this out and stays, we’re going to continue to need him and work with him, and he might not appreciate that we pushed. Bottom line, Egypt’s destiny is Egypt’s to decide, and we’ll work with whoever emerges or is left standing.”

Moreover, administration officials confess that they are uncertain who should replace him.

“There’s no horse to bet on,” said a Democrat with intimate knowledge of the conversations. “There’s no opposition leader to get behind.”