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My landslide is bigger than yours!

My landslide is bigger than yours!
So, Russia is resisting G-8 condemnation of the Iranian government’s handling of the election and the post-election process.
What a surprise.
According to Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, “”No one is willing to condemn the election process, because it’s an exercise in democracy.”
And, compared to Russia, it was! There was a viable opposition candidate who was allowed not only to get on the ballot, but to campaign, have access to the media and participate in televised debates. That’s a far cry from the Three Stooges who “ran” against Medvedev in 2008 — and who debated each other, with Medvedev conspicuously absent. Medvedev had the bigger landslide, 71% to Ahmadinejad’s 62% — but the latter figure is suspiciously similar to United Russia’s 65% win in the December 2007 elections. The new formula for authoritarian regimes seems to be somewhere around two-thirds of the vote for the ruling party or its candidate. Soviet-style figures of 99% won’t do for a “democracy,” even a “sovereign” one; on the other hand, two-thirds demonstrates that a convincing majority of the population backs the ruling party.