READING PUBLIC OPINION IN TEHRAN. Michael Ledeen wonders why, if Ahmadinejad is so popular, the Iranian government insists on censoring the press. I'd suggest that the impulse to intimidate and cow the popular press isn't quite specific to Iran. I wonder why, since Michael Ledeen has never even been to Iran, anyone listens to this sort of speculation from him.
Back in the land of people who actually know what they're talking about, no matter how comforting it is to believe otherwise, Ahmadinejad's popularity is soaring -- he's engaged in a smart strategy to make himself America's primary opponent in the world, while simultaneously promoting programs for the poor and symbolic cultural reforms (he thinks, for instance, that women should be able to attend soccer games, a particularly controversial opinion in Iran). That he owes us a big basket of fruits and flowers for so precisely and enthusiastically playing our part in his own strategy is undeniable, but I guess George W. Bush knows a fellow national security demagogue when he sees one.
--Ezra Klein
