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Well, here's the thing - the clerics aren't rigging the election. They're approving the candidates beforehand (which is why you'd never get a pro-Western republican [small "r" on purpose] on the slate of candidates. They are not dictating who the people are voting for. The elections, such as they are with the pre-selected candidates, are free and fair in and of themselves. I don't see this so much as a shift in the clerical ranks or a power struggle or really even a change in the status quo as I do the clerics allowing a referedum on internal policy. The "America = Satan" chant is a requirement to apply for the job, and the "swings" to the right and left have little to do with the political realities of their foreign policy.
So Mousavi, if he's elected, isn't going to bring a new golden age of pro-American sentiment to power. The office isn't powerless, and I imagine that he could improve the lots of many Iranians, but his election or nonelection won't matter one iota to Americans.
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"They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety." - B. Franklin
"There ought to be limits to freedom." - George W. Bush
"We have met the enemy and he is us." - Pogo
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