Word: reformist
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...Despite being badly burned the last time around, Khatami will run on a reformist platform for the 2009 election- seeking to improve Iran's standing on the global stage, both politically and economically, and loosen governmental control over social and religious freedoms...
...Though Iran's bleak economic climate, surging inflation and international isolation are ripe grounds for an upset victory for Khatami, his legacy as an innovative reformist who introduced women into the political mainstream and welcomed dialogue with the West has already been marred once by a failure to successfully follow through on reforms in the face of opposition by hard-line critics. (See the top 10 Ahmadinejad-isms...
...This time the expectations are much lower," says former vice- President Mohammad-Ali Abtahi, when asked why Khatami would have a chance of defeating the incumbent despite the disappointing note on which the reformist left office in 2005. "Expectations are low enough that people would be happy if he returned things to how they were at the start of Ahmadinejad's presidency... People know this is a critical moment for Iran because the Obama presidency is an opportunity this country needs to take advantage of. Whether we do or not, depends on [who is] president here...
...Reformist activists say their unofficial polling show that Khatami would beat Ahmadinejad by a two-to-one margin. "The surveys may show great support for Khatami," says Majid Hosseini, a political analyst in the camp of the Tehran mayor Mohammad-Baqer Qalibaf, "but the reformists are ignoring an important factor: our surveys show that those supporters won't actually show up at the polls to vote. They won't participate, because they have already been through this scenario for two terms and nothing happened...
...Qalibaf has yet to announce whether he intends to run. Another reformist candidate, Mehdi Karroubi, the head of the National Trust party, has already declared his candidacy, but Khatami has vowed that the reformists would unite behind a single candidate. "Both Karroubi and Khatami have enough political intelligence to know that if they both run, neither will get enough votes," says an editor at Karroubi's paper...