i can tell you if you look at iran's previous president hoopy was remembered for calling a dialogue ofivilizations. at home, he was calling for greater political and social freedoms. what is ahmadinejad known for? denying holocaust and belligerent toward israel. i think while you are right the most powerful individual will remain the main leader, the president is actually an important office. host: how much influence does homminy have on putting influence on the ballot. guest: all the influence. he can control who is allowed to run for president in iran. the guardian council, the equivalent of the superdelegates. the individuals who are directly appointed by momminy or indirectly appointed. the four entities of the guardian council is tasked with filtering candidates. only candidates that are considered loyal to revolutionary ideas are allowed to run. this time only four individuals were allowed to run. thinking about this in a domestic, american, political context, this would be like an american election where between david duke -- david duke would be the furthest right candidate. and

i can tell you if you look at iran's previous president hoopy was remembered for calling a dialogue of civilizations. at home, he was calling for greater political and social freedoms. what is ahmadinejad known for? denying holocaust and belligerent toward i think that you are right, the most powerful individual will remain -- the presidents in iran is not irrelevant of this. host: much influence does he have in putting it on the ballot? guest: he has a lot of influence. he can control who was allowed to run for president in iran. there is a guardian council. it has superdelegates were 12 individuals who were directly appointed by him or indirectly appointed by him. this guardian council is tasked with children candidates. all candidates -- is tasked with filtering candidates. all candidates have to go through this. would be like an american election where -- between david duke who would be the furthest right candidate and the furthest left would be bob dole. host: given this relationship, one person writes how much of an actual reformer is this person? guest: that is a good question.