Moderate triumphs in Iran presidential elections

After months of reassuring the Western public that Iran was a dictatorship and that the election was meaningless, the New York Times et al have overnight discovered a de facto moderate among the candidates.

Not only that, but the moderate has won!

Maybe Iran is at some level a functioning democracy after all?

Alas, the election of Hassan Rowhani will be little more than a temporary setback for the bomb-Iran crowd. In the weeks to come he will surely make statements betraying his allegiance to Iran's interests rather than to those of Washington and Tel Aviv.

The enemies of the Islamic Republic will quickly grow nostalgic for the bombastic Ahmadinejad. He was easy to portray as a dangerous and unbalanced buffoon.

President Rowhani will be a much more sinister adversary.

Launch the propaganda machine into overdrive!

Iran's shah-in-waiting on democracy promotion tour

Reza Pahlavi is in Toronto this weekend to denounce the upcoming Iranian elections and hobnob with Canadian politicians.

Denouncing elections apparently qualifies as "democracy promotion" at the Toronto Star.

Once you acquaint yourself with Pahlavi's agenda it's not hard to see what he's really promoting; himself as the next Supreme Leader of Iran. And why not? He does come from a long line of noteworthy democracy activists and is looked on with favour by dozens of wealthy Iranian expatriates.

And by certain Western politicians.

Pahlavi is speaking metaphorically when he says he'd be dead the moment he stepped off a plane in Tehran. He understands full well that he has zero support on the ground, and couldn't win a free and fair election against Ahmadinejad or anyone else.

Speaking of "anyone else," it is apparently an indictment of the Iranian theocracy that "only" eight candidates have been approved to run for president. That's six more than the citizens of the world's greatest democracy had to choose from last November.