Bloomberg | Bobby Ghosh: A familiar charade is playing out in Tehran. Ahead of the elections to the Iranian parliament next month, those political factions likely to perform poorly are preemptively blaming the U.S.

Expectation-management is the recourse of last resort for failing politicians everywhere, and blaming the U.S. is the hoariest political tradition in the Islamic Republic. The most practiced exponents of both skills are the so-called “moderates,” whose standard-bearer is President Hassan Rouhani.

A brief detour on definitions: Rouhani is not really a moderate in any rational understanding of the term.

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