Legitimacy

Andrés Manuel López Obrador has a habit of referring to himself as the "legitimate president" of Mexico. Of course, neither word applies to the former mayor of Mexico City, but López Obrador nonetheless has persisted in applying the term to himself for the past two years. With the backing of two leftist parties, he recently issued a set of TV spots in which he referred to himself using that favorite nickname. This, evidently, crossed the line. Copife, the electoral authority with perhaps the coolest acronym on the planet, imposed a fine of a little more than $80,000 on the two parties behind the ads: the Party of the Democratic Revolution and the Workers' Party. López Obrador's priceless response: the decision "leaves the country without a president."