I was curious if this meme was making the rounds of other leftie sites, and sure enough, from Democratic Underground:

"...Apparently, they heard the President in Lebanon and Iran as well...President Bush with his Axis of Evil bluster has been replaced by President Obama with his clear diplomatic message of resolve and hope. It seeems as though an American President may be affecting the Iranian elections again, this time positively. From the recent polls it looks like Ahmadinejad is in trouble. His main opponent, Hussein Moussavi, is a reformist who is running an Obama style campaign attracting a huge youth surge. Moussavi stands for equal rights for women and decries Ahmadinejad's foreign policy as "adventurism, illusionism, exhibitionism, extremism and superficiality." In this election, Obama appears to be helping the candidate who is real relations to America. The American President is a role model instead of a straw man.

Likewise in Lebanon. As the New York Times reports, until recently it seemed as though the Iranian backed Hezbollah party would win the majority. Now it looks as though the coalition that is more favorable to America will retain power.

We don't know the exact effect that Obama is having on these elections. But it appears from the 2004 results that the Cheney/Bush presidency bolstered the enemies of America. Four years later it looks like the Obama's presidency may do the opposite.

Americans would do well to remember this four years in the future in our own elections in 2012."

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The light thing is subject of another thread there as well. The trouble with this is, it happened in 2005. Everyone's known about it for 4 years.

The other problem with the above analysis is, if they are going to give Obama credit for the Lebanon elections, they have to be consistent and blame him if Ahmaninejad gets "re-elected".

Besides, the analysis is flawed. The Lebanon elections brought back to power the supporters and son of the assassinated popular (and Bush ally) PM Hariri.



I hope that someday we can put aside our fears and prejudices and just laugh at people.