Thursday, June 18, 2009

Ahmadinejad Goes Down!


Like much of the world, I have been following the presidential election in Iran and its aftermath with great excitement. The election was crudely stolen by the incumbent Ahmadinejad after surprising open campaign, but the people of Iran have bravely taken to the streets in support of Mousavi -- the real winner. It is too early to tell who will prevail in this bare-knuckle power struggle, but you get probably guess who I am rooting for.

The sentiment polarity graph tells the interesting story. Ebbs and flows of the campaign are reflected before the vote, particularly Ahmadinejad's widely-panned debate performance on June 4 and the increasing sense that Mousavi could win. The election on June 12 drew enormous turnout followed too quickly by the announcement of a landslide Ahmadinejad victory. But within 24 hours, Mousavi's claim of fraud gains credence, and Ahmadinejad's sentiment (at least) goes down.

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