Some light (not mine) on Sunday's election in Mexico

[UTUSN]

This is paraphrasing from memory of a radio interview yesterday regarding the Mexican election. I think it was George GRAYSON, in the 2nd link below. It made more sense than the little I know about it.

The professor said that OBRADOR is not a caricature of Hugo CHAVEZ, that he IS sincere in his sentiments for social and economic assistance to the distressed, that he and his wife spent 5 years living in primitive conditions, that he walked the walk.

O.K., here we go. He also said that OBRADOR was a long time PRI member and retains the positions of "the old PRI," something about protectionism, and that his winning would mean "taking Mexico backwards" and that China is right now eating Mexico's breakfast and under OBREGON will eat Mexico's lunch and supper, too. He also said that OBRADOR has "a messiah complex" (GRAYSON's book is "Mexican Messiah").

He said that FOX's PAN party represents what potential for modernization that there is, that FOX was not actually welcomed into the PAN and has been hamstrung by not having a majority in the Congress (I think he said that), which is why the PAN candidate, CALDERON, is not running more ahead than he is.

He said that the PRI dude, MADRAZO, has NO chance, and that the election results will turn on PRI voters realizing they have no chance and on the ones who will "turn" to OBRADOR or to CALDERON.

Please, admirers of Hugo CHAVEZ, this is not about him or flames-on-me. Thanks.


*******QUOTE*******
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6960056/site/newsweek/

.... There is a raging debate within the left, for example, about whether neoliberal market reforms such as the North American Free Trade Agreement have hurt or harmed the country. Mexico's economic performance over the past decade has been mixed, sharpening a sense of disillusionment among many. For even as NAFTA has bolstered the country's manufacturing base and raised exports, Mexico's per capita income has languished. ....

Though his speeches are laced with comments about social justice, the mayor has been carefully vague about his economic philosophy and attitude toward reform. He hasn't, for example, said whether he supports cracking open Mexico's oil sector to foreign investment—a major issue. "Will the real Lopez Obrador please stand up?" says Antonio Ortiz Mena, a political analyst at the Mexican think tank CIDE. "No one is really sure who he is."

Lopez Obrador has tried to cozy up to the business community, with mixed results. Not long ago he was being feted by some of Mexico's most powerful tycoons. At his request, Latin America's richest man, Carlos Slim Helu, poured billions of dollars into a major downtown Mexico City renovation project. ....


http://www.voanews.com/english/archive/2006-05/2006-05-05-voa2.cfm?CFID=23229700&CFTOKEN=98737103

.... In a presentation to the Houston World Affairs Council Thursday, Professor Grayson said none of the presidential candidates in Mexico is likely to make the deep structural changes the country needs in order to prosper.

Grayson says the candidate who had been in the lead until recently, former Mexico City Mayor Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, is the one who would most likely try to move Mexico away from the free-market, free-trade path it has been on for the past two decades.

Critics call Lopez Obrador a populist who would follow the lead of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez. But Professor Grayson says the candidate of the Party of the Democratic Revolution, or PRD, is his own man, with his own vision.

"Lopez Obrador does not just talk the talk, he walks the walk. He spent five and a half years living with the Chontal Indians and he got up every morning at six and worked with them until sundown. He is personally honest. He has a very austere manner of living. Money does not matter to him. But he believes he has been called to save the Mexican people," he said.

George Grayson, who has written a book about Lopez Obrador called Mexican Messiah, says the P-R-D candidate scares many voters, especially in the Middle Class, because of his detached style and his sometimes harsh rhetoric. ....

********UNQUOTE*******

[UTUSN]

1. Morning K for last night's R n/t