diff --git a/lib/showdown/showdown-0.9.js b/lib/showdown/showdown-0.9.js
index 200a5ae7..1bab5b39 100644
--- a/lib/showdown/showdown-0.9.js
+++ b/lib/showdown/showdown-0.9.js
@@ -977,9 +977,9 @@ var _EncodeCode = function(text) {
 
 var _DoItalicsAndBold = function(text) {
 
-  // ** must go first:
+  // <strong> must go first:
   text = text.replace(/(\*\*|__)(?=\S)([^\r]*?\S[*_]*)\1/g,
-    "**$2</strong>");
+    "<strong>$2</strong>");
 
   text = text.replace(/(\*|_)(?=\S)([^\r]*?\S)\1/g,
     "<em>$2</em>");
@@ -1293,4 +1293,4 @@ var escapeCharacters_callback = function(wholeMatch,m1) {
   return "~E"+charCodeToEscape+"E";
 }
 
-} // end of Showdown.converter
+} // end of Showdown.converter
\ No newline at end of file