Mahmoud on the way out?
By Jennifer J. Foster
Judgment Day is coming for Iranian President Mahmoud “the-Holocaust-is-a-myth” Ahmadinejad.
Iranians will go to the polls on Friday to decide whether to return the (crazy; quirky; scary; incompetent; infamous; homophobic ... choose an adjective, or insert your preferred one, here) president to power in Tehran. As Election Day approaches, CNN offers this great piece from senior foreign correspondent Christiane Amanpour in which she explores the underpinnings of Ahmadinejad’s re-election bid and the changing political tides of moderate Iran.
Check it out. Women, actively participating in Iranian politics. Even though the law requires them to do it, and everything else, with their heads covered.
You go, girls.
From a political perspective, the parallels to American campaigns are unmistakable. Both Ahmadinejad and the opposition appear in splashy TV ads; the latter group also employs a familiar catchphrase, as you’ll hear in the clip. And listen for the list of social media tools that candidates are embracing.
Impressive.
But most interesting of all to me was the poster displayed by a voter at 3:30 in the clip: “A new greeting to the world.“
That sounds familiar, too.
Will moderate Iranians step up and replace their lightning-rod president with someone who is more reflective of their growing modernity?
I hope so.
Bonus: In this clip, Amanpour breaks down the issues concerning Iranian voters ahead of Friday’s election.
