Ahmadinejad was their pick for a pliable front man?

Dumb, I know. Perhaps they thought that because he was in opposition with a lot of the key folks in the current leadership, and on the outs, that he would be grateful/willing to cut a deal in order to find his way back into power. No evidence that it ever got locked down in an agreement, but that's what they might have been going for.

I think it's more likely that they had a number of folks that they believed would seize power in the event of a leadership vacuum, and who they believed would be willing to cut some sort of deal rather than be in the Assassination Chair. They clearly had a bunch of folks that they were expecting to be the contenders after Khameini was dead, but whom they ended up killing in that very first wave of strikes.

The goal was not to end up with a new leadership that was just as resolute in opposing the U.S. as the prior one, resulting in the Strait being closed and remaining closed and Iran having their hand around the neck of our Gulf state partners with the threat of bombing their energy infrastructure. That's what ended up happening. But that absolutely was not what they wanted to happen, because it's so completely terrible for the Administration in every way.