Don’t Hold Your Breath for the ‘Obamanization’ of Iran: Folha, Brazil

Since the advent of Barack Obama, has there been a growing expectation around the world that candidates like him are bound to emerge? Calling this group psychosis ‘Obamanization,’ Folha of Brazil’s Joao Pereira Coutinho writes in part:

“I am sick of the Obamanization of the world. Now I’ve invented a word. You know what it means to ‘Obamanize?’ It consists of substituting fantasy for reality, hoping that out of the four corners of the earth, a candidate capable of imitating the kind and evangelistic oratory of the original Barack will always emerge. … Now it has happened in Iran. … The fantasy left out two fundamental but distressing details. First, Iran is not a democracy. Iran is a theocracy, which means that decisions (initial and final) belong to the Supreme Leader, Khamenei. … But there’s more. Over the past few days the fantasy arose that Ahmadinejad could be defeated by a ‘moderate.’ And who is this moderate? Mir-Hossein Mousavi, to be precise. A former prime minister under Khomeini, responsible for the mass execution of political opponents during the 1980s.”

By Joao Pereira Coutinho

Translated By Helene Grinsted

June 15, 2009

Brazil – Folha – Original Article (Portuguese)
LISBON: I am sick of the Obamanization of the world. Now I’ve invented a word. You know what it means to “Obamanize?” It consists of substituting fantasy for reality, hoping that out of the four corners of the earth, a candidate capable of imitating the kind and evangelistic oratory of the original Barack will always emerge.

Now it has happened in Iran. I read the newspapers that were available. I kept up with the television reports. The tone was similar – for the first time since 1979, when Khomeini emerged from his golden exile in Paris to return to Tehran, the Iranians would choose a new president. Worse – they would choose a ‘moderate’ (Mousavi) as opposed to the grotesque creature named Ahmadinejad.

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