...who is shaping up to be quite an interesting politician.
From
The Wall Street Journal:
Behind Rise of Iran's President: A Populist Economic Agenda
By Bill Spindle, WSJ.com (full article here)
TEHRAN -- Iran's new president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, has grabbed the world's attention with his bombast over Tehran's nuclear program and saber rattling against Israel. At home, however, the president's popularity is soaring thanks to another reason: his enthusiastic embrace of economic populism.
In recent weeks, he has proposed a $4 billion national school-renovation program and has raiaised not only salaries for workers in Iran's vast, government-controlled industrial sector but also the minimum wage for everyone else. He doubled government grants for newlyweds and forced banks to lower interest rates by several percentage points.
Mr. Ahmadinejad is emerging as an Iranian version of Venezuela's Hugo Chávez: a pugnacious politician, buoyed by oil money, whose anti-elite message and defiance of the West is causing his popularity to soar. Mr. Ahmadinejad isn't nearly as powerful as Iran's Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. But his policies, which interrupt Iran's tentative stabs at economic liberalization, have helped him wield more influence than many thought possible for an Iranian president...
Mr. Ahmadinejad positioned himself as the candidate of the people against a rich and corrupt elite. One campaign ad featured a tour of the opulent mansion belonging to the previous mayor of Tehran, followed by a view of Mr. Ahmadinejad's modest home in a middle-class suburb. Asked whether they have a pool, Mr. Ahmadinejad's son simply points to a backyard too small for one. "See for yourself," he says. "Where's the sauna?" the interviewer asks. The son just shrugs.
Few things appealed more to Iranian voters, especially the working poor, than Mr. Ahmadinejad's promise to "put the oil revenue on the dinner table of every Iranian." Since being elected, he's made frequent trips to Iranian provinces -- political barnstorming previously unheard of in Iran's aloof theocracy. He encourages supporters to write with their requests and has promised funds for thousands of local projects…
His message is giving the Iranian government a boost of desperately needed popularity during a critical period of international tensions, in particular over the country's commitment to developing its nuclear capabilities. In a recent speech to the nation, Iran's Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Khamenei, compared Mr. Ahmadinejad's popularity to President Bush's low poll numbers.
In recent weeks, he has proposed a $4 billion national school-renovation program and has raiaised not only salaries for workers in 