Unrest in Iran

By now, most readers of this blog will be aware that the results of the Iranian election have generated massive unrest in that country. The likelihood is that this unrest is in response to a genuine attempt to steal the Iranian election. As Juan Cole demonstrates in a posting to his blog, Ahmadinejad almost certainly lost the Iranian election when one combines the supporters of his opponents with undecided voters who supported reform and would almost certainly back his opponents.

One can only hope that the opposition's supporters win out. This is not out of some fallacious hope that an opposition victory will cause all Iranians to suddenly love Israel or convert to Christianity. Rather, one should support the Iranian opposition out of a principled support for democracy.

President Obama Speaks

President-elect Obama gave a weekly address yesterday highlighting the nation's economic difficulties, embedded above. It rings with his typical confidence, but also with a realization of the great challenges faced by the American economy.

As Juan Cole points out, we are still in the rough as long as President Bush is in office. There is always the possibility that he could further screw things up, creating a bank collapse as happened at the end of the Hoover Administration.

It is also worth noting that although President-elect Obama has a general idea of what needs to be done, he does not give much in the way of specifics. We will need to learn more before we can assess his economic plan in detail.