Trying to Pick The Winners In the Mideast.

WASHINGTON -- As the Obama administration grapples with a cascade of uprisings in the Middle East, it has come to a stark recognition: the region's monarchs are likely to survive; its presidents are more likely to fall. In the rapidly changing map that stretches from Morocco to Iran, two presidents have already tumbled: Hosni Mubarak of Egypt and Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali of Tunisia. Administration officials said they believe that Yemen's authoritarian president, Ali Abdullah Saleh, is in an increasingly tenuous position. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]