July 2006: What a Calderon victory means outside of Mexico!

This is a post from July 2006 about the election in Mexico.

As Tip O'Neill once said: All politics is local.

Mexico's election is primarily based on local issues. Like every other country, Mexicans will try to vote on issues that impact them.

However, one cannot deny the impact of what happens in Mexico.

At this point, Hugo Chavez of Venezuela is in a losing streak.

In Peru, Chavez lost.   Alan García beat populist Ollanta Humala.  Chavez was issue # 1. The Peruvian people did not appreciate the comments and intervention from Caracas.  García won by 10 points.

Last month, Colombia returned President Alvaro Uribe to a second term with 62 percent of the vote. Uribe, a U.S. ally, ran on a pro-market, tough-on-narco-terrorism platform.

These two elections rejected Chavez and leftist populism.

This is why the Mexico election matters. Chavez is losing and Mexico could make it 3 in a row!

July 2006: We endorsed Calderon for president of Mexico

This is from July 2006, or our endorsement of Felipe Calderon of the PAN for president of Mexico

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The good news is that PRI won't win.  PRI's domination is over. The bad news is that they will decide who wins.

Calderon and Lopez-Obrador are within the margin of error in most polls. Nevertheless, Calderon can win but two things have to happen:

1) Calderon needs a huge middle class turnout; and,

2) Calderon needs to persuade PRI-istas that they are wasting their vote.

Can he do both? I hope so.

Calderon can not do miracles. However, I think that he understands that Mexico needs more foreign investment, property rights and higher productivity.

On the other hand, the PRD's populism is the wrong prescription for a Mexican economy that can't compete in the new world of China, India, South Korea, Taiwan and Chile.

Good luck to Mexico. This is a very important election. I hope that Calderon can win it.