Criticism improves Iranian president's popularity

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was recently invited to speak at Columbia University. Columbia's president, Lee Bollinger, introduced Ahmadinejad by criticizing the leader's denial of the Holocaust, persecution of minority groups, support of terrorism among other things. He also said Ahmadinejad exhibited all the signs of "a petty and cruel dictator."

Bollinger may have made a mistake here. See, Ahmadinejad is very unpopular in Iran right now, largely because the country's economy, which used to just be in the toilet, has now been flushed, and continues to recede deeper and deeper into the Iranian sewer system.

This is mainly the fault of Ahmadinejad's economic policy, which I like to call his "Three Step Plan." It goes like this:

Step One: Question the Holocaust. Just because there's video footage, written documentation, eye witness testimony and countless items that prove it happened, doesn't necessarily mean it happened. Even some well-respected scholars, like Klan University graduate David Duke, question it.

Step Two: Talk about how terrible Israel is. Since the Holocaust didn't happen, it shouldn't even be there, right?

Step Three: Talk about how terrible the United States is. Ahmadinejad was elected on a "Hate the US " platform after Iran was called part of the "Axis of Evil," so he's just fulfilling a campaign pledge to hate the US , right?

Of course, Ahmadinejad, who has denied the Holocaust, claimed in his speech that he hasn't denied the Holocaust - making him a Holocaust denier denier.

The point is that he's spent too much time talking about how terrible Israel and the US are, while doing nothing in Iran, where inflation and unemployment keep getting worse. The higher-ups in Iran 's government don't like him, and his party was swept out of power in the last legislative elections because the people don't like him.

So, what was Bollinger's mistake? Bollinger's mistake was demeaning the president of Iran , which many Iranians viewed as demeaning them (Ironically, Bollinger actually complimented the Iranian people in his introduction, but the country's state-run media is very selective in what it actually lets them see). And, nothing makes an unpopular leader popular like someone threatening or demeaning his country. After all, Ahmadinejad was elected in the first place largely because Iranians felt threatened and demeaned by George W. Bush calling them part of the "Axis of Evil."

Luckily, Ahmadinejad isn't really a dictator, and is subject to the people, as well as to others in the government. As long as we don't do anything to make him popular, he'll be out of a job soon anyway.