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 Editorials | May 2006 
Did W Just Push Mexico Left?
 Steve Cobble - Huffington Post
| | Photographers gathered around President Bush in the Oval Office Monday after his televised speech. "America needs to conduct this debate on immigration in a reasoned and respectful tone," Mr. Bush said. (Doug Mills/NYTimes) |
No one in the U.S. media seems very interested, but there's a close 3-way Presidential race going on in Mexico right now, with an election in July. So who is most likely to benefit when current President Vicente Fox's good buddy George W. Bush puts troops along the border? Which Mexican party is best positioned to jiu-jitsu Bush's transparent pander to the anti-Latino wing of the GOP, by turning W's new policy into an insult to the Mexican people?
I'm not expert on Mexican politics, but wouldn't you think that Bush has inadvertently set the table for the center-left party?
The candidate of the center-left coalition is the former Mayor of Mexico City, Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador (often referred to simply as AMLO).
AMLO was ahead in the polls earlier this year, but in recent weeks seemed to have fallen into second place.
We shall see, but I think W may just have accidentally tossed AMLO a life preserver.
George W. claimed he was a uniter, not a divider, which has proven ironically accurate as country after country in South America has united to choose left-leaning parties. Will W help unite Mexicans against U.S. troops on the border? Does that open the door for AMLO?
It could hardly be more important. As a former New Mexican, I may be biased -- but I have always felt that Mexico was far more important to the future of the U.S. than most of the countries our foreign policy poobahs obsess about. Important, but usually ignored.
But on July 2nd, election day, it could get very interesting south of the Rio Grande. |
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