Switching Roles

For most of the past couple of years, while the race for 2012 was still a messy blob just beginning to take shape, Manlio Fabio Beltrones was always the sensible, modernizing alternative to Enrique Peña Nieto's dinosaur redux. But on the oh-so-important issue of Pemex, the roles are reversed: Peña Nieto spoke recently about opening Mexico's oil company up to outsiders, while Beltrones responded by rejecting any privatization of Pemex.

The easy explanation is that Peña Nieto is aware of his reputation as a new-age dinosaur and is seeking to modify it, while Beltrones simply needs to distinguish himself from Peña Nieto however possible. In this case, I think the easy explanation is pretty much correct.