He’s biased against Israel, interested in election-monitoring, and surrounded by controversy for his role in the 1979 hostage crisis. He’s the Iranian Jimmy Carter.

And like Jimmeh, he’s also confused.

He denounces it as the “Great Satan” and frequently dismisses its power, but the overtures of the Iranian president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, to the US seem to grow ever more extravagant.

Having failed to win a response with an 18-page letter to President George Bush or to a request to visit the site of the September 11 2001 attack on New York, Ahmadinejad has offered himself as an observer in next year’s presidential election…

However, the terms of Ahmadinejad’s offer appeared to betray some confusion about the potential candidates.

“If the White House officials allow us to be present as an observer in their presidential election we will see whether people in their country are going to vote for them again or not,” he said. The US constitution prevents Bush from seeking a third consecutive term, while no member of his administration is expected to be in the running in next November’s poll.

We’ve seen a variation of this story before, haven’t we? Exit question: Can a man who can’t even run troll patrol on his own blog really be trusted with the world’s most important election?