P.T. Barnum and MALO - Mexico Election Comment 13

I am in Mexico and am a bit concerned about the direction of things. MALO (according to some press reports his real name is Manual Andres and thus MALO) was on the radio this afternoon after press reports that the President Elect's car was stoned, saying the following - "I do not support this kind of action but I understand it." Of course MALO is behind the attack. The concern is that regardless of what the Tribunal does - unless he wins, Lopez Obrador will deny the legitimacy of anything that does not declare him a winner. He seems to have no regard for established points of order or law and little concern for the 65% of the voters who did not support him. There is a lot of evidence of a large amount of outside money propelling some of this activity - lots of posters about clean hands and votes. But it is like PT Barnum said - you can fool some of the people all of the time. The question now is how many and for how long?

As I have noted previously, I think the Mexican system has performed quite well so far. Nothing in this visit - and I spoke with a lot of people - denies that assumption. The election, by all independent accounts, was run fairly - as was the count. The IFE worked hard to make sure that things were done right. But Lopez Obrador does not seem to care.

At lunch today, in a place I have been before which has some of the investment types in the city, the chatter at the next table with a bunch of money runners or IBs was "how do we get along if LO steals the election?" In one sense that is rational behavior in another it is quite absurd. In the end I hope reason will prevail and that the duly elected president will be confirmed by the Tribunal and inaugurated in December. But at this point it is not entirely clear that he will be.