Obama sees change in Iran election

So many Iranians wanted to vote today that officials kept the polls open two hours longer.

After a rambunctious campaign, there's a prospect that hard-line President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, an antagonist to Washington for years, could actually be ousted by reformist Mir Hossein Mousavi, a former prime minister who favors more engagement with the United States.

That, and the victory earlier in the week of moderates in Lebanon, is raising talk of an Obama effect for change -- something the president is not dissuading people from contemplating.

"We are excited to see what appears to be a robust debate taking place in Iran," Obama told reporters today. "And obviously, after the speech that I made in Cairo, we tried to send a clear message that we think there is the possibility of change.

"And ultimately, the election is for the Iranians to decide, but just as has been true in Lebanon, what can be true in Iran as well is that you're seeing people looking at new possibilities. And whoever ends up winning the election in Iran, the fact that there's been a robust debate hopefully will help advance our ability to engage them in new ways," he added.