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"I think today he is probably the weakest he has ever been," says Abbas Milani, director of Iran studies at Stanford University.

"My reading of the parliamentary election was that it was the beginning of a possible lame duck period for Ahmadinejad," he says. "I think the powers that be have decided that he is too much of a liability and are going to try to ease him out."

Gary Sick, an expert on Iran at Columbia University, says he isn't so sure. He notes that Ahmadinejad has worked hard to build his political base among the poor in the provinces. He is not popular with the educated classes.