>
> Yeah, from what I can tell, the A-man seemed to win
> more or less on the up and up. Which makes the protests
> even more amazing. Iranians apparently don't buy b.s.
> pieties about the will of the people being obeyed and
> the rule of law and all that. If you don't like the
> results of an election, take to the street, burn shit,
> all that. Good stuff.
I disagree; I guess it's that reported 62% to 34% landslide, including majorities for Ahmedinajad even in Tehran and Tabriz, which is the source of Iranians's anger, because it's so blatantly phony. If the ballot-fixers had waited a plausible length of time - long enough to have actually counted the votes - and then declared Ahmedinajad the victor with, say, 55% overall and less than 50% in a few cities, then pro-Mousavi Iranians might have sucked it up and conceded, but the two-to-one landslide was too unbelievably fake to swallow. But given the choice between admitting that their guy and his party weren't actually universally beloved and faking up a vote count that people might actually believe, their egomania got the better of them. You wouldn't catch Karl Rove making such a rookie mistake.
yrs wdk