The Mexican Punditry on the Election

A few different takes, starting with Manuel Camacho:

For Mexico, an Obama triumph will help. The situation in the world and in our country can't be seen exclusively through the orthodox lens that has prevailed in recent decades. The idea that John McCain would be better for Mexico because he's pro-free trade and knows the immigration problem doesn't solve anything. The [orthodox] model is exhausted by the crisis in the United States and by the pro-growth policies in Mexico.

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With Obama, Mexico wins. In the United States, he will help to contain and shorten the crisis; in Mexico, he will strengthen a progressive path.

I think that Camacho's viewpoint is pretty close to hogwash. Obama most certainly won't be a factor in the progressiveness of Mexico's politics. The ability of the PRD or some other party to continue as a reasonable destination for leftist votes will determine to what extent progressive policies are put into place in Mexico, not Obama. Also, the idea that Bush's failures undercut any and all orthodox economic approaches is belied by the successfully orthodox policies implemented by leftists in Chile, Brazil, Costa Rica, and Peru, among other nations.

Next up, Alberto Aziz Nassif, who sees the Obama victory through the prism of his predecessor:

The extraordinary conditions surrounding this election illustrate what has been awakened the project of Obama, a leader completely atypical against the Washington establishment.

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[T]he economy is only one of the cars dragged by the train of failures of the Bush Administration, and, along with it, the neoconservative paradigm that has destroyed the international prestige of the United States, violated the law, undermined democratic strengths, provoked an unnecessary war in Iraq, and, to close with a golden brushstroke, has unleashed an international economic crisis of historic proportions.

And finally, Carlos Loret, who gets at why Obama could be good for Mexico, despite his lack of interest in the region:

McCain knows more about Mexico and he holds it closer to him. But Bush was the same way and it was worth nothing. It's not useful to have a weak ally, even though he conducts business in the Oval Office.

Once Obama wins, the United States will immediately have a strong president, the beneficiary of an enviable mandate that will renew the feeling in a nation accustomed to hearing only about dead soldiers and plummeting stocks.

What Mexico needs most from the United States, even before an immigration agreement or resources to combat drug cartels, is a recharged economy. Barack Obama is an injection of optimism in the financial markets that desire new faces and new solutions to the problems that old administration left; a dose of "Yes, we can" for the depression. And economically speaking, mood and perception is more important than the statistics themselves.

And, for anyone scoring at home, four of the seven opinion columns in El Universal today are about the American election.