LATEST POLLS - AT 8:58 A.M. ET:  This comes from the Chinese news agency Xinhua, so we're a little cautious.  But they run a fascinating site.  Their home page is here.

TEHRAN, May 12 (Xinhua) -- A recent poll shows that Iran's president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is leading Iran's presidential election poll by big margin, Iran's satellite Press TV reported on Tuesday.

A recent nationwide poll showed that the Iranian president's popularity has grown among the electorate, while support for his rival, Mir-Hossein Mousavi has remained unchanged, the report said.

"The opinion poll conducted in Tehran as well as 29 other provincial capitals and 32 important cities on May 3-4, indicates that 58.6 percent will cast their ballots in favor of Ahmadinejad, while some 21.9 percent will vote for Mousavi."

COMMENT:  From a purely Machiavellian viewpoint, it's probably better for us if Ahmadinejad continues as president.  He presents a clear-cut bad-guy picture.  If the other guy won, he could be sold to Americans by the foreign-policy establishment as a moderate, which he ain't.

May 13, 2009