Who Is Mousavi Anyway?

Daniel Byman has an excellent article up at Slate that breaks through what some of the MSM has failed to regarding the current situation in Iran. This is required reading for all interested in what is to come in the Islamic Republic.

Mousavi himself is likely to disappoint. A prime minister in the 1980s, when the regime was far more revolutionary than it is today, he is a creature of the Iranian system. Indeed, in order to win approval to run for president in the first place, he had to pass an ideological and political litmus test that rejected more than 400 other candidates, leaving only Mousavi, Ahmadinejad, and two other establishment types. As prime minister, he approved Iran's effort to purchase nuclear technology from Pakistan, and during the 2009 campaign he defended Iran's nuclear program. Clearly he is an improvement over Ahmadinejad, but that is damning with the faintest praise.

I think there has been a widespread pro-Mousavi sentiment that has blanketed the West. I think this is wrong, but expected. Mousavi certainly looks to be on the wrong end of a farcical election, and the feelings about Mahmoud Ahmadinejad throughout the West are well-known. But as Jake Tapper tweeted a few days back, Mousavi is no Thomas Jefferson.