Houston Democrats

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad defeated Ali Akbar Rafsanjani, the former two-term president who had won in the first round of voting last week, but had not attained the percentage necessary to win the presidency. Rafsanjani was the moderate reformist candidate who attempted to garner support from socially moderate and reformist voters. He wanted to continue the reformist policies of President Mohammad Khatami, who had to leave after serving two consecutive terms

However, Rafsanjani was not successful. With 85% of the votes counted, Ahmadinejad is in the lead with 61.8%, to Rafsanjani's 35.7%. In the second round of voting a smaller percentage of voters turned out, only 47% compared to 63% in the first round.

The State Department's response:

[In Washington, a State Department spokeswoman, Joanne Moore, told the Associated Press that the result would not change the U.S. view of Iran.

["With the conclusion of the elections in Iran, we have seen nothing that sways us from our view that Iran is out of step with the rest of the region in the currents of freedom and liberty that have been so apparent in Iraq, Afghanistan and Lebanon," Moore said.]

I can't help but think Bush's recent remarks about Iran's presidential elections being a shambles did anything to help the moderate candidates' fortunes. Bush's sharp and pointed rhetoric cannot possibly help the chances of a moderate candidate who says he would like to promote a more concillatory stance in international relations and those with the United States.

In some ways it seems that Bush may have played the Osama bin Laden role, as in our recent presidential election. I know this may not be an adequate comparison, but both men came out with a statement not long before the presidential election was to take place, potentially swinging some votes.

This time Bush was the "unknown quantity" who spoke harshly about Iran just before the election. The result: the election of a more hard-line fundamentalist leader who espouses the 1979 revolution in which the US was referred to as the "Great Satan."

By criticizing Iran so harshly at a critical time, it now appears that Bush may have driven away support from Rafsanjani, who in the first election had the popular vote, but not a high enough percentage to win the presidency. Then in the second election Ahmadinejad came from behind to quash the moderate candidate.

I know in the past the Bush administration has hinted at regime change in Iran. I certainly hope the president does not choose to move ahead with such a plan. I can't really see how it is possible at the moment, especially when we are already overcommitted to other responsibilities, particularly in neighboring Iraq.

I find the current result especially disappointing when Iran has been modernizing and moving towards greater reform. Now when we must confront a nuclear Iran that likely is developing or has developed nuclear weapons, we must deal with a hard-line fundamentalist leader. Now it appears Iran may be drifting away from greater reform, further complicating West-Iran relations, particularly US-Iran relations. This result is not going to help the volatile situation in the Middle East at all.

What's done is done, and now we must make the best of it, but 2008 cannot come fast enough.

Read the article in the Washington Post.