Two main boycott supporters turn to voting

Today's reformists meeting in football field of Tehran university was wonderful. It was a bit too long, but it was almost full. Thousands of young men and women, maybe by the average age of 26, 27, had shown up despite the extremely hot weather and the burning sun.

But most significant thing happened today was the official announcement by two very popular reformist figures who actually had long boycotted the elections, but now changed their mind and encouraged people to participate and vote.

They were Mohsen Kadivar, the outspoken and smart cleric who spent about two your in jail for his anti-Khamenei stands, and Fatemeh Haghighatjoo, the young female reformist MP who was the first MP who resigned after the parliament election fiasco last year. Now they are backing Moin's campaign.

Also was significant that Reza Khatami, Moin's to-be-vice president, didn't speak at the meeting. The reason, though, became obvious after Moin himself started talking: He is such a bad speaker, despite his innocent face and likable character.Khatami on the contrary, is a passionate speaker. So he could have overshadowed the main candidate who is Moin.

But who cares? Nobody is actually going to vote for Moin for himself. The is the first time that a presidential candidate is earning credibility from his campaign staff, not the other way around. Eight years ago, few knew Mohammad Khatami's main campaign team and strategists. But now Hajarian, Tajzadeh, Reza Khatami, etc. are more popular than Moin himself.

So I think Moin will be facing an bigger challenge the the one with Khamanei: how to deal with people who offered them candidacy and would be setting all important policies and strategists had he win. In this respect, Moin is very much like Bush.

By the way, I've taken so many photos and recorded numerous videos, but due to internet censorship and low-speed connection I can't upload them.