In 2004, John Kerry was expected to defeat the allegedly unpopular George Bush, but surprising to many and shocking to foreigners, Bush retained the Presidency.

In 2008, change was the theme, and leveraging technology, Barack Obama was swept into power.

Reading the post mortems in US and British media, you cannot help but realize that there is

- a brewing hatred for the sitting President in the respective periods (Ahmedinehad in Iran and Bush in USA)

- a power struggle going on amongst the clericals (who basically represent the neoconservatives in American politics).

I think this just reiterates the role of religion in politics.  During Bush’s regime, the US swayed towards right wing religion, Iran did the same thing at the government level even though the population sought more secularism and democracy. What is happening now is the friction between the forces of religion and secularism.  America had its own struggle in the 2008 elections, Iran tried to in 2009, to no avail… but don’t expect those lingering issues simply disappear.