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By Newsweek Editors
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It's on. After months of flowery speeches and campaign appearances, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and his top rival, Mir Hossein Mousavi, finally went head to head in a heated television debate this week. Afterward, thousands poured into the streets of Tehran to show their support for both candidates ahead of the June 12 election. The 90-minute debate, broadcast live Wednesday night, was modeled pretty closely on American political debates and, true to form, quickly devolved into mud-slinging and below-the-belt jabs. It was an unprecedented spectacle in a country where politicians rarely refer to their rivals by name when criticizing them.
Ahmadinejad, decked out in a gray suit and shirt, was clearly out of his comfort zone: he constantly sneered and fidgeted in his seat. But when he was given the chance to talk, he came out swinging. He not only took aim at Mousavi but also at former presidents Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani and Mohammed Khatami, both clerics. "They've all joined together to strike out at this administration since the first day it was formed," he said. "I'm not facing a single candidate, I'm facing a group." Taking potshots at Rafsanjani and Khatami was an unusual move: insulting clerics can be a criminal offense. But that didn't stop Ahmadinejad. He later accused Rafsanjani's sons of corruption and questioned the validity of Khatami's doctorate degree.
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For his part, Mousavi, wearing a black coat and light blue shirt, came back with both barrels blazing. He said it was time to end a method of governing based on "adventurism, instability, posturing, illusionism, dishonesty, self-promotion, law-defying and superficiality." Whew. And he was just getting started. Mousavi blasted Ahmadinejad for his foreign policy, especially the handling of the crisis involving British sailors, and said it was inappropriate to act like a dictator. He also said Ahmadinejad's questioning of the Holocaust had hurt the country. "The country has been embarrassed," he said. The delivery wasn't quite as punchy as the words, though, and Mousavi, who is 67, at times wheezed through his allotted time.
This debate, set on a blue neon stage made to look like a Persian carpet, was only one of a handful between the candidates and could provide key exposure for Ahmadinejad's rivals. In recent weeks, all of the candidates had complained that they weren't getting equal time on the state-owned broadcast media, a point that Mousavi referred to jokingly several times in the debate. Many analysts have predicted that voters may not even decide whether to vote, much less who to vote for, until the last week, which also heightens the importance of the debates.
It wasn't a point lost on Ahmadinejad, who's known for his theatrics. During his final statement, Ahmadinejad pulled out a file with a small picture and coyly asked, "I've got somebody's folder here. It's a lady. You know her. She sits next to you in the campaign ads." Ahmadinejad then went on to question the academic credentials of Mousavi's wife, Zahra Rahnavard, a prominent intellectual and former university president. "He holds up my wife's picture in front of me and questions her!" Mousavi stammered, moments later. "This is the atmosphere that I want to change. This file-building and blackening of names."
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