It is about Iran, not about America!

There is a silly debate starting about the impact of President Obama on the Iranian election. It is worth noting that President Obama is making no such claims. Here are some examples:
bq. “’Whereas the Bush administration united Iran’s disparate political factions against a common threat, Obama’s overtures have accentuated the deep divisions and incongruities among Iran’s political elites,” said Karim Sadjadpour, an Iran expert at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. (from the “BBC”:http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/8111290.stm).
bq. Could there be something to all the talk of an Obama effect, after all? A stealth effect, perhaps?
…
And in his Cairo address June 4, he accepted responsibility for America’s part in the enmity between the United States and Iran.
“In the middle of the cold war, the United States played a role in the overthrow of a democratically elected Iranian government,” Mr. Obama said — a reference to the 1953 coup in which an Iranian prime minister, under whom Iran had nationalized its oil industry, was overthrown and the now-despised Shah was restored to power. (from “The New York Times”:http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/21/weekinreview/21cooper.html?partner=rss&emc=rss&pagewanted=all).
So is there “an Obama effect” in Iran?
Short answer: No
Long answer: No
Why? Because the Clinton Administration made the same overtures. “Here”:http://www.fas.org/news/iran/2000/000321-iran1.htm and “here”:http://newsmine.org/content.php?ol=coldwar-imperialism/iran53/gesture-to-iran.txt are links to stories from 2000 in which Madeleine Albright acknowledged the U.S. role in the 1953 coup in Iran. President Obama is saying little different from his last Democratic predecessor.
What has changed is Iran. Back in 2000 Iran was run by a so-called reformist who was running into opposition from the same forces that have recently showed just how dishonest Iran’s system is. Today Iranians are on the streets in protest against that act of massive electoral fraud and the regime’s violent response.
It is about them. It is not about us.