It's funny how this result appears to be a shock for everyone - except the Iranians.

This is a classic example of how all the Western media pundits and many political leaders are capable of seeing and interpreting only those trends and events in Iranian society that they wish or hope to see, not the reality.

We would all so love to see a new, fresh, reform minded Iranian leader (i.e. one who doesn't say crazy things about the Holocaust or about gays) that we only tune in to the expressed opinions of young, urban Iranians who want more freedon, or the middle-class westernized Iranians who think more like us, and we conveniently neglect the views of the rest of the country. The reality is that most poor people and civil servants in Iran really don't give a damn about his occasional incendiary statements on foreign policy issues but they sure like to see increases to their salaries or their pensions, or gov't services. And Ahmadinejad also remained very popular in rural areas of the country.

Of course it didn't help that the so-called reform candidates in the election were pretty gray and dull, and did not create much excitement.