Mexico leftist holds lead in new presidential poll

[Judi Lynn]

Mexico leftist holds lead in new presidential poll
Thu Feb 23, 2006 12:56 AM ET

MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Leftist candidate and former Mexico City mayor Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador holds a lead of between 5 and 9 points over his closest rivals for the presidential election in July, new polls showed on Wednesday.

A survey by the Milenio newspaper showed 36 percent support for Lopez Obrador of the left-wing Party of the Democratic Revolution, which is down 1 point from its last survey in January.

Felipe Calderon of the ruling National Action Party polled at 31 percent, the same as Roberto Madrazo of the Institutional Revolutionary Party, which ruled Mexico for seven decades until 2000.

A separate poll by Consulta Mitofsky released late on Wednesday gave Lopez Obrador 39 percent of support, the same level as in January.
(snip)

Lopez Obrador has for long been the presidential front-runner but his lead has slipped in recent months as rivals rolled out high-spending campaigns.
(snip/...)

http://today.reuters.com/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=worldNews&storyID=2006-02-23T055648Z_01_N22319175_RTRUKOC_0_US-MEXICO-ELECTION-POLL.xml&archived=False

[MaryBear]

1. Is this guy "leftist" as in

Chavez of Venezuela, or as in Lieberman of USA?

[Judi Lynn]

3. Fortunately for Mexico, he's more interested in people than Lieberman is.

He's done a bang-up job as Mexico City's mayor already. Here's a bit of info:

From:
A rising star in Mexico

The man who would be president

Nov 13th 2003 | MEXICO CITY

~snip~
His industry and astuteness have turned Mr López Obrador, a pragmatic left-winger, into the rising star of Mexican politics. The next presidential election is not due until 2006. But already the mayor is seen as the man to beat. His manic work habits are reminiscent of Álvaro Uribe, Colombia's president. But the Latin American leader Mr López Obrador is most often compared with is Lula, Brazil's moderate left-wing president.

He owes this inflated status in large part to the political vacuum created by the failure of Mexico's president, Vicente Fox, to fulfil promises of reforms and economic growth. After his conservative National Action Party lost heavily in mid-term legislative elections in July, Mr Fox's fate now lies in the hands of the former ruling party, the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI). It holds the largest number of seats in Congress, and continues to frustrate the president's programme. This gridlock is Mr López Obrador's trump card. While other politicians bicker, the mayor presents himself as a man who gets things done for the capital's 8.8m people.

Like Mr Fox, Mr López Obrador has been in office for three years, but has more to show for it. He has given priority to vigorous social programmes with national relevance. He has launched a scheme under which over-70s receive a monthly allowance of 688 pesos ($63) for food and household goods. He gives grants to the disabled, and helps single mothers with their children's education. He has opened 12 new schools (the first in the city for over 20 years) and a new university. To tackle Mexico City's notorious traffic, he has built, in record time, a second tier above a stretch of a ring-road. He has launched an ambitious project to restore much of the city's run-down and dangerous old centre.
(snip/...)

http://www.economist.com/research/backgrounders/displaystory.cfm?story_id=2213360

[Peace Patriot]

5. This is part of a leftist revolution that has swept South America and

appears to be moving north with the rise of Lopez Obrador. Over the last several years, virtually the entire map of South America has turned "blue" with leftist governments elected by big majorities in Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay, Chile, Venezuela and Bolivia. Chile just elected its first woman president, socialist Michele Batchelet (who was tortured under Pinochet). Bolivia just elected the first indigenous president in South America (Evo Morales, who campaigned with a wreath of coca leaves around his neck--former coca leaf grower himself, opposed to the murderous US "war on drugs"; rose to power on the poor rebellion against Bechtel, which had privatized the water in a Bolivian city and jacked up the prices). Lulu in Brazil is a former steel worker. Chavez in Venezuela has black and Indian blood--the first brown face ever to head the Venezuelan government.

All of these governments have a common theme of anti-US/World Bank imperialism, self-determination and regional cooperation. And what is behind this revolution is TRANSPARENT elections, brought about by years of hard work by local civic groups, the OAS, EU election monitoring groups and the Carter Center.

Transparent elections = good, leftist governments, responsive to the will of the people. (U.S. voters, take note!)

[Flanker]

17. Lula

nm

[formercia]

2. Consulta Mitofsky?

This the same bunch that did the 2004 poll screwup?

[Peace Patriot]

7. Speaking of Mitofsky...

The U.S. got hit with a double whammy of lies and deception in 2004.

First, Tom Delay and Bob Ney had arranged--through the $4 billion electronic voting boondoggle called HAVA--to have two rightwing Bushite corporations (Diebold and ES&S) tabulate most of the nation's votes in 2004, using "TRADE SECRET," PROPRIETARY programming code, with virtually no audit/recount controls.

Second, late on election day, 2004, the war profiteering corporate news monopolies, acting in concert through one polling company (Edison-Mitofsky) FALSIFIED their exit polls on everybody's TV screens, DOCTORING their exit poll numbers (Kerry won) to force them to "FIT" the results of Diebold's and ES&S's secret formulae (Bush won)--thus depriving the American people of major evidence of election fraud, and squelching protests and calls for investigation.

The latter was the worst journalistic crime I have ever witnessed, bar none. The former--the complete corruption of our election system, with non-transparent vote counting--was done without one word of objection from our Democratic Party leadership. (Go figure. Are they insane, or what?).

Unlike South America, which has learned the hard way what it means to have a corrupt election system, the United States is now suffering under a fascist coup, and will likely go on suffering under it, until we, too, find our way back to TRANSPARENT elections.

Non-transparent elections are not elections. They are tyranny.

Look south, brothers and sisters! And rejoice that some folks in the western hemisphere have good, responsive, leftist government. And get to work restoring democracy HERE!

Some resources:

www.votersunite.org (MythBreakers - easy primer on electronic voting--one of the myths is that HAVA requires electronic voting; it does not.)
www.verfiedvoting.org (great activist site)
www.UScountvotes.org (monitoring of '06 and '08 elections)
www.solarbus.org/election/index.shtml (fab compendium of all election info)
www.freepress.org (devoted to election reform)
www.TruthIsAll.net (analysis of the 2004 election)
Sign the petition (Russ Holt, HR 550, great bill-has 169 sponsors). http://www.rushholt.com/petition.html
www.debrabowen.com (Calif Senator running for Sec of State to reform election system)

Also of interest:

Bob Koehler (--recently four election reform initiatives in Ohio, predicted to win by 60/40 votes, were flipped over, on election day, into 60/40 LOSSES!--the biggest flipover we've seen yet; the election theft machines and their masters are now dictating election policy!)
www.tmsfeatures.com/tmsfeatures/subcategory.jsp?file=20051124ctnbk-a.txt&catid=1824&code=ctnbk

Amaryllis (Diebold, ES&S, Sequoia lavish lobbying of election officials - Beverly Hilton, Aug. '05)
www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=203x380340

------------------------

Throw Diebold and ES&S election theft machines into 'Boston Harbor' NOW!

:think: :wtf: :mad: :bounce: :argh: :woohoo: :toast:

[ingac70]

4. A swing left would be the best thing for Mexico....

Too bad alot of assholes in the US refuse to realize that folks making their own countries more livable goes a long way to stem illegal immigration.

[saigon68]

6. Don't fret ---The CIA is working on plans

TO KILL HIM

[Peace Patriot]

8. Nope, they can't assassinate the leftist revolution in Latin America--

it is profound, deep rooted, widespread and unstoppable. :applause:

[rman]

9. we know what that means:

if economic invasion fails, and assassination fails, the next and final option is military invasion.

[DBoon]

12. and what portion of the US military has family ties to Mexico?

and how do you think they would feel about invading Mexico?

[saigon68]

13. They will do their duty

Or check into Ft Leavenworth.

But I agree with you they won't like it one bit

[rman]

15. Mexico already has been invaded economically

So there's no need for military invasion, nor for assassination.
The next elections might change things though, but that's in the future, and in the mean time anything can happen.

[alcibiades_mystery]

10. They tried to put this guy in jail

It was a comically inept move that enhanced his popularity.

[DBoon]

11. and right out of the karl rove playbook

nt

[phusion]

14. If AMLO is elected

I hope he works with the Zapatistas and fully honors the San Andres Accords...The Accords, which the Mexican gov has already signed, would free political prisoners and recognize the autonomy of indigenous communities in Mexico.

That will be the acid test IMHO.

[mom cat]

16. Wonder where the money is coming from for Obrador's opponents?

[Az_lefty]

18. what, he's to the left of Genghis Kahn?

anyone with a social conscious is a leftist to these fascists.

[Judi Lynn]

19. So sad, but true. They've managed to label everyone beyond the

extreme right lunatic fringe.

Each new (to U.S. ordinary citizens) Latin American politician who works for the common good is given a nasty treatment in our press from the earliest moments of acknowledgement. It seems so close to Joe McCarthy days.

[MaryBear]

20. Worse than those days.

Bushco knows to say it opposes x y and z

Then it goes ahead and does x y and z

Meanwhile condemning others for doing x y and z

And claiming to do opposite of x y and z.

And the media dutifully reports

that Bushco opposes x y and z

and condemns others for doing x y and z

and reports that Bushco says it is doing the opposite of x y and z

and Bushco slowly, steadily continues to do x y and z.