"I suspect most of Iran's recent bluster is really all about stoking the flames of national patriotism and muffling the voices of moderation and reform in that country. Keep in mind that Iran is now flanked on both the west and east by countries hosting sizeable American military forces. "

This is possible.

"What better way to calm a nervous population than to proclaim confidence about one's military prowess? What better way to protect one's political power than to appear defiant before one's "enemy?" "

It seems to me that there are better ways. In other words it might be "common" behavior, but seems it's a poor way to approach this.
Let me flip this around, if Rummy say something that appears to be "too aggressive", doesn't the State Dept find this unhelpful?

Or if it's actually a better way to protect political power, wouldn't this argue that more countries should use this better method?
What countries are using this better way to protect their political power, and doesn't this suggest that more countries, if they were only a bit wiser would be?
Should Japan arm itself with thousands of nukes in order to defend itself against China? Saudi Arabia has plenty of money and educated people- should it develop nukes? The list goes on and on. Who is actually using this "better way" other than Iran and N Korea?
And why don't people who are generally regarded as having any brains support this better way?

"Iran is a long ways off from producing a nuclear weapon."

We don't know how far Iranians are from producing nuclear weapons. What Iran claims is they are close. But if a country such as Iran actually desires to make nuclear [which they seem to claim they do] from stratch it's possible that they could repeat what the US did when it first developed atomic weapon before anyone was even sure that this was even possible. The US did this in less than 5 years, at a time when 25% of it's budget was needed for fighting war against two other miltary superpowers.
Since Iran is already is possibly at point enrichment which apparently at a large and sophisticated level and they apparently have trying to do this at a somewhat lower level for decades. Even accounting a huge amount stupidity on the Iranian side of things, 2 years seems like reasonable doable time period.
But comparatively, one could say China take about 5 years to land humans on the Moon. The question is does China really want to do it this fast, and does Iran really want to do this fast, So Iran could be a long ways off from making a nuke or they could already have one. They could announce they have 6 or more [like N Korea did] it might be just a lie. But if they set one off, you will then have a high certainty that they have nukes- but how many nukes will still be a question. They might make atom bombs, but only test Hydrogen bombs- and "testing" might done in some populated city.