Iran’s Ahmadinejad Says Obama is Acting Like Bush

Video

Ahmadinejad demands apology from Obama (NBC Today, June 25, 2009) — Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is accusing President Obama of interfering in Iran. Meanwhile, the opposition vows to continue protesting the disputed election. (01:48)

June 25, 2009

TEHRAN, Iran — President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad accused Barack Obama of behaving like his White House predecessor and called on him to apologize for what he called U.S. interference following Iran’s elections.

Obama has ramped up his previously muted criticism, saying he was “appalled and outraged” by a crackdown on protests which followed Ahmadinejad’s disputed re-election.

“Mr. Obama made a mistake to say those things … our question is why he fell into this trap and said things that previously (former U.S. President George W.) Bush used to say,” the semi-official Fars News Agency quoted Ahmadinejad as saying.

Before the election, the Obama administration had indicated that it was interested in reaching out to Iran, after years of a diplomatic freeze following the 1979 Islamic Revolution. Iran has given no clear signal that it is interested in Obama’s overture, and in the wake of the election, the U.S. leader has slowly ratcheted up his criticism of Iran. …

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Commentary

Purely in terms of personal attributes, just how similar are Barack Obama and George W. Bush? And how, specifically, do they differ from Mahmoud Ahmadinejad? Following are their psychological profiles, developed at the Unit for the Study of Personality in Politics.

Personality Profile of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad (June 11, 2009)

Personality Profile of George W. Bush (April 6, 2000)

Personality Profile of Barack Obama (Feb. 21, 2009)

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UPDATE ON THE ECONOMY

Buffett’s Gloomy Economic Predictions

The Oracle of Omaha says worst is yet to come

By Kim Peterson and Catherine Holahan
MSN Money
June 25, 2009

Warren Buffett doesn’t see the “green shoots” Ben Bernanke and other bullish investors have spoken of in recent months. In fact, the billionaire investor believes the economic picture will grow darker before things improve.

“Everything I see about the economy is that we have had no bounce,” Buffett told CNBC anchor Becky Quick in a televised interview Wednesday. “There were a lot of excesses to be wrung out and that process is still under way, and it looks to me that it will be under way for quite awhile. In the annual report, I said that the economy would be in shambles this year and probably well beyond, and I think that is true.”

Unemployment, said Buffett, will continue to drag the economy down. He told Bloomberg news that unemployment is “very likely to go above 10%.” About 9.4% of the population — about 14.5 million people — was unemployed in May, the last month for which statistics are available. High unemployment will continue to depress consumer demand for everything from energy to cars and homes, Buffett said.

Wednesday’s news about new-home sales supported Buffett’s argument. New-home sales fell 0.6% in May, dashing the hopes of many bullish investors who believed the economy and credit markets had turned around enough to fuel big ticket purchases. …

Before things get better for investors, Buffett believes the government will need to continue to take steps to reduce unemployment.

“It looks like we’re going to need more medicine, not less,” he said in an interview with Bloomberg News, adding that the country may need a second stimulus package to pull out of the current spiral. “The recovery really hasn’t gotten going.”

Buffett cautioned that some of the “medicine,” though crucial, may have adverse side effects down the road. Inflation, he believes, could become a big problem. But, it will also likely push investors to buy stocks since rising prices would erode the value of cash.

“We have done things that raise the probability of high rates of inflation at some point,” he told CNBC.

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