Posted 10:59 PM by Robert

Such Optimism!

Let it never be said that Reuters and the New York Times can't see the bright side of what's happening in the Middle East!

Here they provide us with the sunny (not sunni! - this is Iran we're talking about here) headline: 6 Cleared to Seek Iran Presidency.

Isn't that nice?

It's so good to see that Reuters and the New York Times are able to see that the glass is 0.6% full, given that over a thousand candidates were barred from the race.

On the lighter side, we are also told that "The only approved advocate of change was Mehdi Karroubi, a former speaker of Parliament." A former speaker of the Iranian Parliament, eh? No doubt he's a real wild and crazy reformer.

UPDATE: The gloomy Financial Times headlines the same developmets as: Leading reformer is banned from poll in Iran

FURTHER UPDATE: Those killjoys at the Washington Post headline their story on these developments: Most Iran Reform Candidates Disqualified. In other words, the Post sees the glass as 99.4% empty! Dear me, what would Norman Vincent Peale say about that?