THE TELEGRAPH: The petitions kiosk outside President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's home in Teheran, set up as a hotline to Iran's self-described "humblest servant", receives all kinds of requests.
Yet amid the pleas for help with debts and joblessness, and tussles with Iran's byzantine bureaucracy, there is one letter that the men at the counter particularly remember. "A woman asked if Mr Ahmadinejad could find her a good husband," said one proudly. "It shows how popular he is - you would only request something like that if you really felt he'd become part of your family."
In this particular case, the president's office replied that it was beyond his powers - a rare admission of defeat from a leader whose personality cult rivals that of Iran's "supreme leader", Grand Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
Yet last week, two years after his election to power on a promise to help Iran's downtrodden masses, Mr Ahmadinejad, 49, finally learnt the downside of the demagogic approach - namely, that running a country of 69 million inhabitants as a one-man band involves taking blame as well as credit.
The issue was not over his notorious threats to "wipe Israel off the map", his defiance on Iran's nuclear programme, nor his puritanical desire to return to the early days of the Islamic revolution. Instead, the man who considers himself on a divine mission was floundering because of his inability to minister to one of his flock's most basic needs: petrol. Iran curses Ahmadinejad over petrol rationing (more) By Colin Freeman in Teheran
Mark Alexander
