Monday, June 4, 2012

Vicente Fox: Loyal Panista

The first opposition candidate to win the presidency in the post-Revolutionary era has thrown his support behind Enrique Peña Nieto. I'm not sure if this will swing too many votes, but it does say quite a lot about Fox.

Fox's presidency was a disappointment, but that was inevitable given the exuberance inspired by his campaign. Where I think you really have gotten a taste of his shortcomings is in the years since he left office, during which he has: brow-beaten an interviewer for asking a legitimate --and potentially quite helpful!-- question, calling him vulgar and storming off the set; announced plans to start a talk show; written one of the emptier memoirs you could ever read; boasted to the Associated Press, "I'm riding again. I'm on my horse. I'm fighting dictatorships, fighting demagoguery, fighting populism"; called for a pact with the narcos; and carried on a noisy spat with Felipe Calderón's wing of the PAN. This is just a partial list, but it's long enough to demonstrate that the man who should have been one of the signal figures for Mexican democracy is closer in temperament to reality-show contestant.

More here.

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