With the US attempting to figure out how exactly to solve the Iraqi security dilemma while fending off realists like Baker and Gates, the MSM has been having field day after field day obsessing over the “inevitability” of our withdrawal and let the Shiites finish the Sunnis off. Khamenei probably recognises that the spotlight has finally shifted away from the Iranian nuclear crisis - world opinion on that issue has somehow settled into delusional self-comforting intransigence - and thus hopes to keep it that way. Ahmadinejad’s blatant rhetoric would perhaps prove too enticing for the MSM to pass up.

You are correct. I believe that Ahmadinejad will be eligible to run for re-election. Given this episode, it should be interesting to see if the Guardian Council even certifies him as eligible to run.

Although it’s not certain it’s quite possible that Ahmadinejad was not Khamenei’s first choice for President (Glalibaf supposedly was). Their relationship hasn’t actually been that solid, and Khamenei has come out and corrected some of Ahmadinejad’s more vitriolic statements, though that rarely gets reported in the western press. Additionally, the nuclear program is not run by Ahmadinejad but by Khamenei through the Iranian supreme national security council. In many ways, Ahmadinejad’s statements against Iran and open support to the nuclear program are designed to ensure his domestic popularity considering such decisions and responsibilities to not lie in his office. He’s a savvy politician in that regard.

Unfortunately for Khamenei, Ahmadinejad’s radicalism is hurting Iran in the international arena. It seems to me this latest move to limit Ahmadinejad’s term may be Khamenei’s effort to ensure that we remember where the real power lies in Iran, especially considering all the talk about us attacking Iran. I personally think that Khamenei is tired of Ahmadinejad’s rhetoric and the problems it continually creates for Iran. Khamenei would rather have the world’s attention focused elsewhere and he definitely does not want Ahmadinejad’s rhetoric to provoke war with the US and/or Israel.

It’s frankly sad that so many popular blogs do so little to get basic facts straight on important topics. You do a good job here, but so many take what Ahmadinejad says, combine it with ignorance and assumption and then make broad pronouncements about how we HAVE to attack Iran now or we’ll get nuked. The alternative media still has a long way to go.

Plus, I’ve always felt that Khamenei engineered Ahmadinejad’s victory because he seems perfectly suited for a confrontation at this time with the US and the west. Former head of the Qods Brigade in the Rev Guards, a probable accomplice in the assassination of the dissident in Vienna - the guy has smelled gunpowder and his fanaticism makes him a true believer of unusual magnitude for the leader of any state - much less one that is working to acquire nukes.

No - there’s something deep between Khamenei and Ahmadinejad - a symbiotic relationship where one enables the other. Khamenei has also been slowly radicalizing the Assembly of Experts and The Guardian Council as well.

Some of the more shallow analyses may try to paint Ahmadinejad as you say. But there is truth even there. He IS a radical. He IS a fanatic. And he DOES have more leeway than certainly Khatami did and even more than Rafsanjani. Hitler? Maybe not. But don’t underestimate his fanaticism - especially since it really does seem to be tinged with religious fervor.

I’m not saying he’d launch the second he gets nukes (chances are he’ll be gone by the time the Iranians succeed in building one anyway), but I believe him capable of doing it if he felt the Islamic state was threatened - real or imagined.