AMLO bites back (Obrador is ready to rumble bushco's Calderon)

[Robbien]

For weeks now Felipe Calderón, centre-right candidate for the ruling National Action Party (PAN) has been waging a highly effective advertising campaign to sully the image of Andrés Manuel López Obrador, his leftwing rival.

But now Mr Calderon has received a strong dose of his own medicine: Mr Lopez Obrador recently accused Mr Calderon’s brother-in-law of having won juicy state contracts during Mr Calderon’s time at the energy ministry, and then avoiding taxes.

Whether there is any truth to the allegations or not the impact was has been undeniable. Two polls published last week put Mr Lopez Obrador of the Revolutionary Democratic Party (PRD) back in the lead for the first time in two months. True, a third poll suggested he was still trailing slightly. But what all the polls show is that in the space of just a few days Mr Lopez Obrador has orchestrated a vigorous recovery that has put him right back in contention.

The speed with which such these dirty campaigns appear to affect electoral preferences suggests that Mexico has a large pool of so-called independent voters – people who do not identify themselves strongly with any of the parties. That means people can suddenly be put off voting for a candidate they planned to back just the day before.

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/8f8d1b00-fee7-11da-84f3-0000779e2340.html

[Judi Lynn]

1. IF ONLY Lopez Obrador can win. He's the far better man.

Mexico's Lopez Obrador: A Common Man Bent on Change


Presidential front-runner Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador is seen as a salvation by some, a danger by others. One thing is sure: He knows politics.

By Héctor Tobar
Times Staff Writer
Posted June 15 2006


MEXICO CITY — The candidate has a certain sex appeal. Imagine a mestizo Bill Clinton: cappuccino-colored skin, a full head of white hair and a charismatic stage presence. Sometimes, his arrival at a campaign stop will provoke a scream from a woman who, a second later, realizes she's too old to be acting that way.

Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador is the candidate of the common man (and, clearly, of the common woman) in this year's presidential campaign. His critics call him an irresponsible populist who will ruin Mexico's precarious economic stability, but to millions of others, the 52-year-old standard-bearer for the leftist Democratic Revolution Party is hope incarnate, a warrior and father figure rolled into one.

Polls released this week show he has retaken the lead from conservative, free-market candidate Felipe Calderon.

Lopez Obrador fought off impeachment as mayor of Mexico City, took care of the capital's "little grandmothers" with a monthly subsidy check and launched the most ambitious transportation projects in the traffic-choked metropolis in a generation. Now he's on a crusade to bring the most ambitious social and economic reforms Mexico has seen in decades.
(snip/...)

http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/local/caribbean/la-fg-amlo15jun15,0,2475690.story?coll=sfla-news-caribbean

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

-> -> -> -> July 2 <- <- <- <-

Mexico's Presidential election date!

[Robbien]

3. Just hoping Mexico doesn't go the way of Peru

Nice to see Obrador is on the attack, he has been playing defensive for far too long.

[Zynx]

4. Peru elected a center-leftist over a hard core leftist.

It did not elect a right winger.

[Robbien]

5. But a center-leftist who is pro-USA and its free trade agreement

At a time when the gap between the rich and poor is so huge, opening up all Peru's resources to privatization and privateering by global corporatists will just make the gap so much wider.

Center-leftist in Latin America is close to being a Lieberman Democrat here in the US.

[Judi Lynn]

6. Alan Garcia is a real zero. I'd like to know more about who was running

his campaign when they made the decision to leap into a ferocious attack mode, and finally grabbed the lead after savaging Ollanta Humala WILDLY. Humala had been very much the clear favorite for a long time prior to the intense attack mode from Garcia.

I'll betcha he got some help from right-wing interests in the States, who preferred their chances with him by a mile.



Peru's future President.

[bleedingheart]

2. all the common folks here in the US that advocate "trickle down"

should just look south...Mexico is a "trickle down economy" where the rich piss on the poor.

[donsu]

7. wishing Obrador much luck, stamina and love

it's time Mexicans get a govt. FOR the people