Mexico - July 2 is almost here

i'm almost as anxious about this as i am about seeing argentina play germany tomorrow in the fifa world cup...

Less than three days remain before Mexican voters go to the polls, and a neck-and-neck presidential race is set to determine whether the wave of electoral victories for Latin American progressives will wash ashore far enough to lap at the toes of Texas.

and the u.s. is fully supportive of free, fair, open, and democratic elections...

S-U-U-U-URE we are...

The White House maintains an official policy of not intervening in other countries’ elections. Of course, this rule has often been violated in the past, especially with regard to our southern neighbors. During El Salvador’s last presidential election, U.S. officials went so far as to suggest that voting for a change away from “free trade” governance could endanger the flow of remittances—needed money sent back to El Salvador from family members who have immigrated to the United States. The threat sent a chill through the populace, and the right-wing candidate went on to score a decisive win.

but we wouldn't interfere in mexico's election, now would we...? well, maybe, just a little bit, and only from THIS side of the border...

The reliably rabid opinion page of the Wall Street Journal published a column in March arguing that AMLO’s opposition to President Vicente Fox’s pro-corporate economic policy signals “a worrying authoritarianism with moralistic overtones” and suggested that an alternative path for development would qualify as “wild populist experimentation.” Political advisor and Fox News commentator Dick Morris published a column in The New York Post with madcap accusations that AMLO’s campaign is being bankrolled by Venezuela’s Hugo Chávez. Envisioning an elaborate conspiracy, he wrote: “Chavez is a firm ally of Cuba's Fidel Castro. Lopez Obrador could be the final piece in their grand plan to bring the United States to its knees before the newly resurgent Latin left.”

or maybe we just pay for consultants to go there to "help out" and teach them all the nasties that karl rove carries around in his bottomless bag of scum...

U.S. political consultants helped to introduce inflammatory charges into the Mexican campaigns. Coached by Morris’ ilk, AMLO’s rivals, Felipe Calderón Hinojosa of the right-wing Partido Acción Nacional (the party of current president Vicente Fox) and Roberto Madrazo Pintado of the long-ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), produced a barrage of negative ads in recent months. The U.S.-style mudslinging set a new standard in Mexican politics. The Federal Electoral Institute had to step in to censure activity that went beyond the pale. It barred a series of ads that declared the candidate “a danger to Mexico” and that likened AMLO to Chávez. And it criticized Fox for violating the legal prohibition against the outgoing president campaigning while in office.

and, even though it may have backfired somewhat, the negativity tactic seems to have succeeded in dragging the level of political debate down into the same sewer the u.s. currently occupies... ah, well... i'm still rooting for amlo...

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