The White House as we speak is devising a plan with other countries including Arab countries to get to the end point of free and fair elections for Egypt in September. They are hoping that it can be finalized by Monday.
In order to achieve the final end point there are certain things that will need to happen that the protesters will be against.
Carl Bernstein has the run down of what the White House really wants but is afraid to say.
http://www.thedailybeast.com/...
The U.S. response to Egypt appears to be all over the map from Mubarak has to go NOW to Mubarak must stay to the army must take over, etc.
The reason why it appears to be inconsistent and wavering is because the United States is afraid to say what they REALLY want and are now trying to achieve a plan by Monday. The truth is that Mubarak can't leave as president because according to the Egyptian constitution the person who would take over is NOT the Vice President but the speaker of the parliament, Fathi Surur, who is considered even more corrupt and evil then Mubarak. The White House is afraid to say it because they do not want to be seen as being against the protesters when they are not.
As a result, the White House has devised a plan that they hope to implement by Monday.
First and foremost, The United States—in concert increasingly with other governments—is seeking an immediate transition to democratic pluralism and procedures that, simultaneously, will prevent the Muslim Brotherhood from overwhelming or co-opting the process to become the dominant political force in Egypt’s post-Mubarak future.
To accomplish this, President Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, while sympathetic to the desire of Egyptian democratic forces that want Mubarak step down immediately, in fact have been working toward a solution that would permit him to stay for a brief period as a powerless, defacto head of state. He would remain as such until new mechanisms, and perhaps a new Egyptian constitution, are in place for a stable transition that would also prevent authoritarian and corrupt Mubarak apparatchiks from controlling the process of succession.
Why does the U.S. want to pursue this path as oppose to getting Mubarak out of office right now? The answer is that the person according to the Egyptian constitution who would then take over as president is the Speaker of the Paliament. This person even worse then Mubarak. Also, the U.S. doesn't want the Muslim brotherhood to overwhelm the elections either.
The Speaker of the Parliament:
This is particularly true in terms of the speaker of the Egyptian parliament, Fathi Surur, who has been speaker of the People's Assembly since 1990, described by someone familiar with his record as "a corrupt, venal man," who under the existing constitution would become president of the country if Mubarak should abruptly resign or be removed from office.
How they are going to achieve this:
Thus, Obama and Clinton, with help from other world leaders, including figures in the Arab world, have been trying to achieve a consensus among prominent Egyptian politicians, academics, bankers, cultural leaders, and representatives of the fledging democracy movement personified by young people in Tahrir Square, that Mubarak should be effectively stripped of his power and convinced to cede his presidential powers while briefly retaining the title of president. Ideally under ths scenario, Mubarak would leave the presidential palace in the next few days, but retain the presidency as a means of keeping it from passing—under the existing constitution—to the Parliamentary speaker, Surur. State Department officials and anti-Mubarak forces in Egypt consider Surur inimical to the interests of both the United States and advocates of democracy in Egypt, as well as other Arab leaders who fear that further chaos there could feed radical Islamic influence in their own countries.
These underlying realities are what have driven the events described in Saturday morning’s New York Times report, that Egypt’s new vice president Omar Suleiman and military leaders have begun discussions to strip Mubarak of his decision-making powers and perhaps have him taken from the presidential palace in Cairo—while still remaining president. Then, a "transition government" led by Suleiman would begin negotiating with various factions that have opposed Mubarak to amend the constitution, end the "emergency" under which Mubarak has governed with an iron fist since 1981, and draft a series of democratic reforms including rights to assembly, free speech, religious freedom (particularly for Egypt’s million-plus Christians), presidential term limits, and the rules for the next presidential election, scheduled for September.
Not only is the U.S. concerned about the speaker of the parliament but they are concerned that Egypt will be end up being a "military running a country" rather than a "civilian country running the military".
Such a solution—a powerless but constitutionally present Mubarak for another few weeks, at least—would be consistent with the intricate dance that the White House and Secretary Clinton have been trying to encourage, according to aides, and one that has prevented them from playing their cards in the open—i.e., from enunciating publicly that one of the primary objectives is to prevent the Brotherhood from walking through the door or power to be ceded to the Speaker of the Parliament. "He is ghastly, and there could be no consensus if he were to govern," said one American diplomat. Similarly, there is fear among top players in the national security apparatus in Washington and among democracy advocates in Cairo that if too much authority is claimed by the Egyptian military in formulating a post-Mubarak future, another authoritarian era could ensue.
Contrary to what the media may be saying, the Muslim Brotherhood is a problem.
"Part of the difficulty is the perception that the problems will all be solved if Mubarak simply is pushed out... and resigns," said a source familiar the American strategy. "Mubarak is already history, but the real issue is how you build a bridge to the future and get a stable outcome that protects democratic principles and gets a decent, participatory system and doesn’t leave the door wide open for the Muslim Brotherhood to walk in. Our focus is a stable outcome where the great mass of responsible Egypt is able to express itself."
"That’s why you don’t actually want Mubarak to leave right away, though on the surface it might seem the case," said a source familiar with the U.S. strategy. "What you want to do is have him go off to his home at Sharm el Sheik [a seaside resort], or take one of his medical holidays in Europe. Meanwhile, we are hearing too much from some [American] political scientists blathering that we have nothing to fear from the Muslim brothers. The people saying this are full of shit."
Will it work? I don't know but the is what the White House REALLY wants.
In the White House, there is hope that, by Monday, the strategy now being discussed sotto vocce in Cairo and Washington will be in place, and that a gathering of prominent politicians, bankers, young democracy advocates and others will meet to sort out the next steps: what kind of constitution, the date that the Mubarak "emergency" will be declared ended—"all the rules of the road ahead," as an American official put it. "But until then, Mubarak is president, but you don’t hear from him, he’s the umbrella but not the CEO."
In all the White House IS on the side of the protesters NOT Mubarak. They WANT Democracy in Egypt and they feel in order to achieve it that this is the way to go.
Time will tell if they are right...