In fact, blogging has become common among former officials, especially reformist politicians who do not have a platform to express their ideas.

Image Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has a blog. Credit... Ben Curtis/Associated Press

The first official who became a blogger was Mohammad Ali Abtahi, a vice president to former President Mohammad Khatami. Mr. Abtahi has remained an active blogger, updating his Web site every day for the past four years.

“I thought it was exciting when the president first launched his blog,” Mr. Abtahi said. “But it looks like it is just a formality. The computer is one of the many items on his desk which he does not use very often.”

However, the president’s Web log highlights the unusual techniques he uses, like the trucks that follow him on provincial trips for collecting people’s letters to him appealing for help, to promote his populist agenda.

Mr. Ahmadinejad has tried to touch on most issues that concern him. He has written about freedom in Iran, referring to the protest of students against him a year ago at Amir Kabir University in Tehran as an example of its existence in Iran. “It was a joyous feeling to see a small group insult the elected president of people fearlessly amid a majority,” he wrote, without referring to the fate of the students, many of whom are in prison now.

In a letter to an American mother whose son was killed in Iraq, he calls the United States a “warmonger” but he says he respects all people of the world, including American people. In another article, he condemns the fingerprinting of passengers, like Iranians, by American customs officials and says it has caused hatred toward the American government.