He wants a big transcontinental clash of civilizations -- but the press won't stop asking him about domestic issues. Who knew the Ahmadinejad presidency was so much like the Bush presidency?

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad meant to use Tuesday to focus attention on his challenge to the president of the United States....

But at a freewheeling two-hour news conference, Mr. Ahmadinejad also found himself challenged by local reporters who questioned the government's economic program and its tolerance of a critical press.

One reporter said the government's decision to spend billions of dollars to subsidize gasoline amounted to welfare for the rich, an assertion the president disputed. Another said that although the president claimed to support the press, his spokesman sought to have the judiciary investigate critical reporters.

Well, there's a significant difference: Bush seeks to have the judiciary investigate critical reporters, but he's never claimed to support the press.

He climbed up onto a platform and briefly held his right hand over his head in a sort of hero’s greeting to the crowd.

Yeah, stuff like that happens here.

A reporter for a small newspaper called The Path of the People stood to ask a question and said: "I was hoping when you arrived I would share my pain with you. Now I have no pain in my heart, only happiness."

And what do you -- Ahmadinejad even has his own Jeff Gannon!