My 2 cents on 3rd and 4th place…

I think it wasn’t so much that Karroubi and Rezaei failed to adequately get their message across, rather that Ahmadinejad was just too skilled of a politician to be matched by the others. This is not to credit Ahmadinejad with any intellectual brilliance, just to say that he is a highly formidable political warrior, particularly in the televised debate which caused some stir in the foreign media.

American observers will recognize the parallel to Minnesota Republican Michelle Bachmann. While obviously ignorant and paranoid, Bachmann still brutally vivisected her opponent Tinklenberg in all of their debates. It was almost humiliating to watch.

The points are very clear and very helpful! Thank you so much.

S.

This election was from the first place between Ahmadinejad and Mousavi and the other two candidates were in the shades. As for Karroubi, he had strong and influencing figures on his side but he personally appeared very weak in his live debates and speeches in the TV. He couldn’t answer some of the most fundamental questions directed to him by other candidates like why he had accepted some $300,000 from Shahram Jazayeri, a controversial figure charged with economic corruption who had bribed some high ranking officials, or why he had held secret prisons inside the Foundation of Martyrs and Veterans Affairs while he was the head of it. Dr Rezaei of course appeared very good in the debates and speeches but he had begun his campaign late. He had entered the previous election but had withdrawn from it and even this time he was not seemed stable and insistent on entering the race. This made people doubt his firmness and stability. However I believe that if Dr Rezaei enters the next presidential race he would attract much more attention and vote. As I believe that if Mousavi was not in the race, Karroubi as the only reformist was going to gain more votes, however not as much as Musavi did.
Besides, as there were concerns over a split in the votes of both the reformists and the fundamentalists, people were encouraged by the leaders of both groups to vote for the candidate whose victory was more expected that is for Mousavi and Ahmadinejad. I don’t know if I made my point clear or not!

Any information on that “missing dimension” that you identify so well would be gratefully received. From my outside viewpoint, your comments on Tehran are important to remember, and I think we are suffering because of no knowledge of other areas.

What surprised me about the vote was not necessarily the gap between Ahmadinejad and Mousavi but that the votes for Karroubi and Rezaei were so low (only 1-2%).

S.

You make a very important point. We have tried to use information from Twitter only when we are sure that is reliable or when we add the caution that it is not verified.

I also appreciate your point about the “selection” of news. Our problem is that it is almost impossible now to get any reliable information from outside Tehran, including from those who support the President. As for the election and protests, we are using news from Press TV and other Iranian state media, but this tends to be partial in its portrayal of events.

On your final sentence, “We should respect what people of a country decide for themselves and we should keep our eyes and ears open to the whole truth of any event”: I could not agree more.

S.