South of our porous southern border, Mexicans are feeling – in spades – the kind of uncertainty Americans felt after the 2000 presidential election.
Mexico’s presidential election was held July 2, but only Tuesday did the country’s electoral court declare a victor. Conservative candidate Felipe Calderón prevailed by 233,831 votes out of 41.5 million cast.
The election drama went on for two months because losing candidate Andrés Manual López Obrador claimed fraud and wanted officials to recount ballots. They didn’t do as much checking as he wanted but concluded the overall results were fair.
López Obrador, former mayor of Mexico City, refuses even now to concede defeat, vowing to continue protests and civil disobedience by his supporters and promising to convene a Sept. 16 convention to organize a shadow government.
It all makes Florida’s hanging chads and dueling court rulings look like child’s play.
Mexico’s political turmoil may be disheartening to some, but Mexicans who endured decades of one-party rule must be bemused that the longtime ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) didn’t even enter into the photo finish.
Looking across the Atlantic, President Bush must be thinking he doesn’t really have it so bad.
Given Bush’s low approval ratings and the public’s increasingly sour mood about the war in Iraq, some nervous Republican candidates are distancing themselves from the president. That seems minor compared to what’s happening to Bush pal Tony Blair, prime minister of Great Britain. On Wednesday, seven junior members of his government quit in angst because Blair has once again declined to say exactly when he’ll step down. (After winning a third term as prime minister in the 2005 general election, Blair said he wouldn’t seek a fourth.)
The Labor Party’s image has become increasingly tarnished in recent years, what with public opposition to Blair’s support of the Iraq war and a budding scandal over alleged “sale” of seats in the House of Lords in exchange for contributions.
Some Labor factions have become increasingly anxious for Blair to step down so the party can move toward the next general election under the leadership of Finance Minister Gordon Brown, although some Labor rebels are complaining about him, too.
The more fluid nature of the British system, and the fact that the prime minister is also the leader in Parliament, makes a prime minister. vulnerable in a way the American president is not. Word is, Blair will shortly do what George Bush will not: set a date for withdrawal.
