Leftist candidate gets boost in hopes to win Mexican presidency (Mexico)

[bemildred]

MEXICO CITY – Leftist Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador got a boost in his hopes to gain the Mexican presidency Monday with a new opinion poll showing him 10 points ahead of his closest rival and his party making a surprisingly strong showing in local elections in the nation's most- populous state.

Analysts said the gains, which come less than four months before the July 2 presidential ballot, demonstrate the ability of Lopez Obrador to connect with voters outside his leftist base and reflect a weak campaign by the conservative candidate Felipe Calderon.

“Lopez Obrador looks like a very difficult man to beat,” said George Grayson, a Mexico expert at the College of William & Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia. “Only a tremendous scandal could rock him now.”

The poll, conducted by Mexico City newspaper El Universal, gave Lopez Obrador, the former mayor of the capital, 42 percent of the vote compared to 32 percent for Calderon, of President Vicente Fox's National Action Party.

SignOnSanDiego

[mom cat]

1. Should we form a border patrol to keep Deibold machines out of

Mexico.There will be a lot of unwanted ones that the US will try to dump on "less developed countries".

[fshrink]

2. Another terrorist state.

Too bad they don't have much oil. We could have invaded them. Maybe they got WMD though.

[DBoon]

7. Actually they have LOTS of oil

4th after Canada, Saudi Arabia, and Venezuela

http://www.peakoil.com/article32.html

[leftchick]

3. This is great news!

More Crazy Leftists South of the Border! Yeah!

[Terran1212]

4. Not another anti-democratic communist loose-cannon to attack!

[Guy Whitey Corngood]

5. “Only a tremendous scandal could rock him now.”

All they need to do is make one up even if there was no there "there".

[Terran1212]

6. That's your number, Rove

[Lisa0825]

11. They tried that already....

(some stoopid thing about a right-of-way deal for a hospital driveway, I think) and the result was a million people crowding the zocalo in Mexico City to protest. I think if they didn't let him run, they'd be facinig a revolution!

[Judi Lynn]

8. Newsweek:Mexico leftist stretches lead in new election poll

Mexico leftist stretches lead in new election poll
Political platform promises to put poor first


Updated: 10:33 a.m. ET March 13, 2006
MEXICO CITY - Mexico’s leftist presidential front runner, Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, has sharply increased his lead ahead of the July election, a new opinion poll showed Monday.

The survey in the El Universal newspaper had Lopez Obrador with 38 percent support among registered voters, 13 points ahead of his nearest rival, conservative rival Felipe Calderon of the ruling National Action Party.
(snip)

Promises to put poor first
Lopez Obrador, a former mayor of Mexico City, promises to put Mexico’s millions of poor first if he wins the July 2 election. His lead in polls faded late last year but has risen again since the election campaign formally began in January.

As the election date nears, a greater percentage of potential voters say they plan to participate, a factor that appears to benefit Lopez Obrador, the poll found.
(snip/...)

http://msnbc.msn.com/id/11808513/



Younger and current Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador

[ninkasi]

9. I hope he wins

maybe having a leftist president will make some progress in improving Mexico's economy. I'd seriously consider moving to Mexico then.

[Judi Lynn]

10. Leftists win Mexico state as vote nears for president

Posted on Tue, Mar. 14, 2006
Leftists win Mexico state as vote nears for president
By Hector Tobar
Los Angeles Times

MEXICO CITY - The leftist Democratic Revolution Party and its presidential candidate, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, emerged as the big winners Monday in a key state election, the last big political test before the Mexican presidential balloting in July.

In the weeks before Sunday's vote in the state of Mexico, López Obrador campaigned extensively for candidates of his party, known as the PRD, in a local election for dozens of mayors and the state legislature. The party gained seats in the state legislature at the expense of the Revolutionary Institutional Party, or PRI.

The leftist party also won the biggest prize of all, the mayor's race in Ecatepec, a sprawling industrial suburb of Mexico City with 1 million voters and one of the largest municipalities in the nation. The victory ended years of PRI rule in the suburb.

The results in Mexico state came as a new poll by the influential El Universal newspaper showed López Obrador widening his lead in the presidential race to 10 percentage points over Felipe Calderón of the center-right National Action Party, or PAN, the nation' third major party.
(snip/...)

http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/news/world/14094273.htm