Saturday - June 17, 2006

Mexican Election Nonsense

HA! You just thought politics and elections in America were weird. Wait until you see what’s going on “South Of The Border”. National elections are coming up in a few weeks and Mexican candidates are trying to raise the bar in the prestigious Howard Dean Political Insanity Contest.

Voodoo dolls, wild turkeys, peeing in their pants ....? All the more reason why we need to keep the MESS-cans out of America. We’ve already got our quota of political weirdos on the Left and in the Liberal madhouses in Kalifornicatia and Taxatwoshits.

Key quote in the story below: “he told supporters his rivals came to eat pigeon, but what they got was a fighting cock.” Aye, Caramba!

Hot Air, Wet Pants Spice Up Election Race
_{Fri Jun 16, 10:25 AM ET}

MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - A squawking wild turkey as president, voodoo, a dancing grandpa pharmacist and a nervous criminal urinating in his pants on television—welcome to Mexico’s election race, as wacky as it is vitriolic. Full of colorful insults, blaring pop songs and nonsensical sparring, the campaign for the July 2 election has been based as much on personalities and petty point-scoring as policies.

Sick of weeks of mudslinging and silliness, voters have been sticking pins in voodoo dolls of the candidates, and the Federal Election Institute has axed some political ads as too slanderous to be aired. “It’s a very basic, very crude, very coarse, very clumsy election campaign,” commentator Guadalupe Loaeza told Reuters.

The battle for the presidency is the first since 71 years of one-party rule ended in 2000 and fierce competition between the three main parties has sparked flaming tensions. Probably the oddest campaign moment yet is a TV ad by third-place candidate Roberto Madrazo showing a criminal wetting his pants out of fear for Madrazo’s tough stance on crime.

“For me, it’s lacking in creativity. Vulgar. It’s resorting to something very childish,” said Loaeza. Among outlawed ads are spots by conservative Felipe Calderon calling his leftist arch-rival Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador a danger and linking him to Venezuela’s fiery leader Hugo Chavez. Calderon, a balding lawyer whose hairline is inked in on his campaign posters, is in a neck-and-neck race with Lopez Obrador, a crusader for the poor who dons floral garlands and tropical-style guayabera shirts.

In their latest spat, Lopez Obrador sent Calderon’s campaign office huge cardboard boxes he said contained documents proving Calderon awarded his brother-in-law lucrative contracts when energy minister. But Calderon said the boxes were a farce, empty but for a few meaningless papers. He said his rival was a liar, called him “Lopez Hablador” (Lopez Talker) and his aides “clowns.” Rhetoric has been harsh, reflecting a nation split between left and right that is still learning some of the rules of democracy.

“If the players persist in just insulting each other, they may win the contest but could not lead the country,” wrote columnist Javier Oliva in daily La Jornada. Lopez Obrador has laid into President Vicente Fox, who he says is illegally helping Calderon, dubbing him a “chachalaca”—a wild turkey known for its piercing squawk. “He acts like a chachalaca, he screeches like a chachalaca,” the leftist said, also accusing Fox of “verbal incontinence.”

Keeping with the bird theme, he told supporters after a heated election debate last week that his rivals “came to eat pigeon, but what they got was a fighting cock.” Amid all the madness, frustrated voters have lobbed plastic bottles, paper airplanes and inflated condoms at candidates and even offered one, Patricia Mercado, a puff of marijuana. Some of the most colorful campaigners cannot legally run because no political party will back them.

They include oddball magnate Victor Gonzalez, who has adopted the persona of his pharmacy chain’s rotund and grandfatherly mascot, “Dr Simi,” with fluffy white hair and mustache. Claiming more Mexican fans than Mickey Mouse, and fond of models in mini-skirts, Gonzalez hires people to wear spongy Dr Simi costumes and dance outside his pharmacies.

“I have money but I earned it honestly. I have women but I am single. The people love these things,” he said recently. Also seeking support is Zapatista rebel leader Subcomandante Marcos, who gave his first live TV interview in years in his trademark ski mask and smoking his pipe to call for the overthrow of the government, whoever wins.

Posted by The Skipper     on 06/17/2006 at 12:49 PM   
Filed Under: • Odd-Strange •  
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It's been a long strange trip without you Skipper, but thanks for pointing us in the right direction and giving us a swift kick in the behind to get us going. Keep lookin' down on us, will ya? Thanks.

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