Obama yesterday: "We are excited to see what appears to be a robust debate taking place in Iran"

Robust indeed:

Violent protests broke out in Tehran Saturday after Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was declared the winner of Iran's disputed presidential election.

The announcement brought thousands of supporters of the president's main rival Mir Hossein Moussavi onto the streets where they were met a strong police presence and the threat of violence.

CNN's Christiane Amanpour said she saw riot police fighting "running battles" with protesters, who were shouting "death to dictatorship."

The government said on Saturday that Ahmadinejad won Friday's presidential election with 62.63 percent of the vote and Mir Hossein Moussavi received 33.75 percent of the vote.

Before the vote count ended, Moussavi issued a sharply worded letter urging the counting to stop because of "blatant violations" and lashed out at what he indicated was an unfair process.

Moussavi said the results from "untrustworthy

"The results announced for the 10th presidential elections are astonishing. People who stood in long lines and knew well who they voted for were utterly surprised by the magicians working at the television and radio broadcasting," Moussavi said in his statement.

Iran, he said, "belongs to the people and not cheaters."monitors" reflected "the weakening of the pillars that constitute the sacred system" of Iran and "the rule of authoritarianism and tyranny." Independent vote monitors were banned from polling places.

Do keep this in mind the next time Obama speaks of looking for robust or even healthy debate on a given subject and how excited he is by the possibilities.

There's a huge lesson here.

For those with eyes to see and ears to hear.

Comments

[JoeCitizen]

Huh?
Sorry, but you are going to have to actually make your point, rather than just allude to it. Because I dont see any point here.

Obama was, very obviously, correct to note, and to point to the vibrant and robust debate that preceded the election. In fact, were it not for that, there would not have been such a protest at the phony outcome.

We should all be excited at the obvious fact that the Iranian people have been waking up and trying to shake off their theocratic rulers. The fact that the rulers may succeed in stealing this election only postpones the inevitable.

Why cant you understand that?

[ff11]

This is clearly about as robust as it gets, and although it brings the possibility of great danger, it also brings the best chance for a positive breakthrough and rapprochement with Iran since before the "axis of evil" speech.

[chuck aka XtnYoda]

I think we should send Jimmy Carter over there to verify the election. He has a great history with Iran, and is of course a marvelous election monitor.

He would probably like to visit the government that he helped put into place.

I'm sure they would give him a hero's welcome.

[tim aka The Godless Heathen]

"it also brings the best chance for a positive breakthrough and rapprochement with Iran since before the "axis of evil" speech."

Yea, its Pres. Bush’s fault Iran is the way they are. Only an ignorant fool would say such a thing.

Besides, the election will change nothing and will not change the fact of who the real rulers of Iran are and how they view the world. We’ll still be the Great Satan even with some half Black dude with a middle name of Hussein. Get a clue, Obama changes nothing in the equation and to believe such nonsense is staggeringly naive.

The level of immaturity of Obama himself and his supporters displayed here is simply amazing. To have a president who thinks that by giving a simple speech he can change the likes of Iran, a country ruled by a Theocracy for 30 years, is beyond comprehension. It is dangerous to have such hubris when dealing with lunatics who are behind most of the terrorism in the world. Being a light weight pansy is comical to a culture that only respects strength. Obama will only make things worse in the Middle East and it will be a tough lesson for him, his supporters and unfortunately those of us caught in the fallout, figuratively and maybe literally.

Yea, let's talk about North Korea while we're at it. They've certainly smitten with the whole Hope/Change aren't they now.

[Mommynator]

I guess I'll have to update my dictionary - apparently, according to Obama, debate includes beating people to a pulp and/or death.