Saturday, October 21, 2006

Los Angeles Times weighs in

The Los Angeles Times, never a friend to right wing causes, has published an editorial which should sting AMLO as much as Tabasco's voters did last Sunday.

http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la-ed-tabasco18oct18,0,5106147.story?coll=la-opinion-leftrail

http://digbig.com/4nknb

"Voters in the southeast state, a stronghold of Lopez Obrador's leftist Democratic Revolution Party, or PRD, have delivered the following message to the former presidential candidate: Get over yourself. By a 10-point margin, they elected Andres Granier, the candidate of the Institutional Revolutionary Party, or PRI. This after Lopez Obrador spent three weeks campaigning alongside his party's candidate, Cesar Raul Ojeda. Before Lopez Obrador's meltdown last summer, Ojeda had been leading in the polls."

"Ojeda adhered to his political godfather, Lopez Obrador, signing off on his ludicrous claim that the national election was stolen."

" ... it appears that his party is the victim of one man's megalomania. If upheld, the results in Tabasco will be an encouraging sign that most Mexicans, even in Lopez Obrador's home state, now accept the verdict of July's presidential election."

Tuesday, October 17, 2006

Tabasco tragedy for PRD

I had predicted a PRI victory in Tabasco, but not a ten point landslide. The PRD is pleading "fraud," but that could not account for such a gap (especially when the opinion polls match the ballots). Whether or not some fraud took place, unfortunately, no one seems to be taking the PRD seriously anymore.

This is the real legacy of AMLO. His charges became ridiculous, and his antics so obviously self-serving. Now, a good party (and perhaps a good Tabasqueno candidate) are now not taken seriously. If there was one state where I really did not expect to see this, it was Tabasco.

“It seems to me to be a catastrophe for him,” said Raymundo Riva Palacio, a political columnist for the newspaper El Universal. “On his own turf, the political costs of the protests and the taking of streets has taken its toll in an election.”

Oscar Luis RodrÌguez, a fellow Tabasqeuno of the PRD said: “Andres Manuel has lost credibility.... Here Andres Manuel was born, and here he has been buried.”

Friday, October 06, 2006

eyes on Tabasco

The big question in Mexican politics today is how much AMLO's late summer antics hurt the long term prospects of his Democratic Revolution Party (PRD). All eyes are now on his home state of Tabasco, on the Gulf. On October 15 there will be an election for governor. Although Lopez Obrador won the state on July 2 with 57% of the vote, the PRD gubernatorial candidate is trailing in the polls, down by 9%.