Reading opinion polls in Tehran
I was both fascinated and perplexed by a poll of Iranian voters described on the op-ed page of Monday’s Washington Post. Fascinated, because glimpses into Iranian public opinion are rare; perplexed because the conclusions in the original poll analysis and in the op-ed were at radical variance. Personally, I haven’t the foggiest idea whether Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s reelection was valid or fraudulent, which differentiates me from the folks at Terror Free Tomorrow (TFT), who do purport to know. The organization, which seems to be run by fine people, none of whom appears to have a background in public opinion research, polled Iranian voters in May. Based on their survey analysis, they urged Post readers not to “jump to the conclusion that the Iranian presidential elections were fraudulent