The silence toward the Iranian people's plight was deafening. Arizona Sen. John McCain charged that Obama's administration needs to speak more forcefully about Iran's election mess.

But Obama turned even more dismissive of the Iranian voters who believed the election, and their struggle for basic democratic rights, has been stolen from them by an autocratic government.

"Although there is amazing ferment taking place in Iran, the difference between Ahmadinejad and Mousavi in terms of their actual positions may not be as great as has been advertised," Obama told CNBC last Tuesday.

McCain, in an interview on CNN cited by the Washington Post, said he was "frankly incredulous" by Obama's statement.

"To say there's not a bit of difference between the two candidates is beside the point. The Iranian people, obviously, think there's some difference, or tens or hundreds of thousands of them wouldn't be in the streets," he said. Even more to the point, these disgruntled Iranians believed -- I think with much justification -- that Ahmadinejad's re-election by an alleged two-to-one margin is total fiction. Millions of paper ballots could not possibly have been counted in a matter of hours, as the government alleged. More disturbing were reports of opposition candidates who lost the vote within their own communities where they were most popular.

Apparently, even Supreme Leader Khamenei now thinks fraud may have been committed. He had declared Ahmadinejad the victor right after the election but backed away from that and ordered an investigation by the Guardian Council, a panel of senior Islamic clergy and jurists, that could lead to a partial or even full recount.

Mousavi supporters do not trust the council, which is allied with the government. They want an independent commission to conduct an inquiry, and Mousavi has called for a new election.

Meantime, the Obama administration has some explaining to do about its callous dismissal of the human-rights issues that have been raised by all of this. The Iranian people have taken to the streets to demand their rights to a free and honest election, but his administration's position seems to be that getting along with the Khamenei/Ahmadinejad regime is a lot more important than a few million lost votes.